Diwali Rush: Blinkit Facing Disruptions In Its Warehouses In Haryana, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Says Report

Diwali 2025: Amid the ongoing festive season buying, quick commerce giant, Blinkit, is facing logistical challenges and disruptions in Haryana, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. To tackle the situation, Blinkit has stopped accepting stocks of new items from sellers, reported Economic Times citing sources.

Diwali season rush and a sharp surge in festive demand combined with inventory-led model has caused logistical issues and trouble to the Zomato-owned quick commerce platform.

"Due to the ongoing festive season and high warehouse utilisation, our storage spaces are operating at full capacity," ET quoted an email sent by Blinkit to sellers.

Sellers Worried On Missing Out On Diwali Season Sale

As most of the online platforms are luring customers with massive discounts, deals, and offers during Diwali, sellers have expressed concerns on missing out on the opportunity.
"This is affecting our ability to sell seasonal items, especially for Diwali, which is a high-demand season," one seller told ET.

The logistic challenges have come nearly a month after Blinkit announced transition to purchasing goods directly from brands and sellers in September. A few sellers have noted that sale on the platform was easier when the company's inventory distribution policies were flexibile, but they have become stricter recently, reported ET.

The quick commerce platform launched in 2013, is in direct competition with players like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, Amazon Now, etc. Despite rivals slowing network expansion before the festive season, Blinkit has expanded its dark store network aggressively. It now operates around 1,700-1,800 micro-warehouses for 10-minute deliveries.

With a strong presence across metro cities with nearly 1,544 dark stores, against 1,062 Swiggy stores, Blinkit is likely to perform well in the present quarter. "Blinkit is executing well, with a significantly large scale, in terms of dark stores and consumer base. The company also has best unit economics leading to significantly better EBITDA margin versus peers," noted Emkay Research in September.

The logistics and inventory related issues at Blinkit are impacting smaller sellers as long waits for appointment dates and delayed update about inventory on application are likely to impact their business.

A Blinkit spokesperson explained to ET that during peak festive periods each year, new brand onboarding pauses due to high warehouse utilisation. This pause will last until October 31, with regular operations resuming on November 1. Under Blinkit's trial offering, brands list products in specific areas for a week before expanding based on performance.