Why Zepto’s private-label meat foray may just be a losing game

When Mumbai-based Tamanna Jaisinghani took to cooking meat last year, stepping into a local butcher shop felt intimidating. Like many urban consumers, she turned to online meat seller Licious—the only meat brand she knew at the time. 

But soon, her go-to grocery app, Zepto, began meeting her meat needs too. “I used to see Licious products [on Zepto], but then Relish started popping up more on the app,” says the 38-year-old. “I didn’t even know it was Zepto’s brand, I thought it was like Venky’s or Zorabian.”

Launched in October 2023, Zepto’s private-label meat brand Relish entered the market even as its peers Blinkit and Swiggy have either avoided or shuttered private-label plays in the meat category. No quick-commerce venture has successfully cracked meat till date— be it Dunzo (through its butcher-to-doorstep approach) or Swiggy (through its B2B tie-up with meat suppliers).

Indeed, Deepanshu Manchanda, founder and CEO of ZappFresh, a Gurugram-based online meat company, says that fresh meat’s contribution to quick-commerce revenue has slipped to just 2–3% now, compared to 5% during COVID times.