“Food orders were in line with what we usually witness on weekends in the first half of the match…although there was an expectation of a spike with the discounts being offered and advertised during match hours,” an executive at a food and grocery delivery company said.
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“The match day didn’t make much of a difference in the first half, but we saw the trend curve changing after India started batting…that has also to do with the fact that dinner time orders are usually higher,” the person added.
Quick commerce platforms witnessed a spike in orders for items such as chips and beverages during the second half of the match.
“Navratri starts tomorrow but looks like the festivals already started. Chips of all kinds are flying off the shelves. #INDvPAK days are just mad!” Albinder Dhindsa, chief executive of Zomato-owned quick commerce platform Blinkit, posted on social media platform X. He also posted a chart, suggesting an increase in orders for chips.
“Similar trend for cold drinks and beverages too. Sales spiked up a lot more during the break before India started batting,” Dhindsa said.
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At 4.15 pm, Bengaluru-based Swiggy, which runs Instamart quick commerce platform, wrote on X that it has seen orders for over 100,000 cold drinks during the day.”On an average, Instamart saw a 25-30% increase in orders (compared to a regular Saturday) across different cities. Overall, the orders even exceeded the last time there was an India-Pakistan match during Asia Cup by 25%,” a Swiggy spokesperson said late Saturday, adding that the company had strengthened its delivery fleet to keep up its delivery timelines as it saw a significant spike across food delivery, Instamart and Dineout, its restaurant discovery vertical.
India vs Pakistan fixture during the Cricket World Cup is considered to be one of the most popular sporting events with more than 35 million concurrent viewers watching the match online with at least as many watching on television.
“Cricket usually creates a 5-10% uptick for the day, especially for dinner… Right now (around 6pm), it’s at 5% higher than usual days. Maybe, dinner has a bigger uptick,” Rashmi Daga, founder and CEO of cloud kitchen platform Freshmenu, said.
Similar trends were observed by restaurants, which were expecting higher footfall during dinner time.
“We had prepared for more orders but there’s nothing extraordinary as of now. It’s a usual Saturday for us, but we’re expecting more orders and dine in customers for dinner,” an executive at a restaurant based in Delhi’s Connaught Place told ET over the phone.
Angithi, a restaurant at Mayur Vihar, Delhi, said the outlet had prepared with extra raw materials and human resources “thinking there will be more orders but we didn’t see much increase”. “We still have hopes that things will improve in the latter part of the day,” Satpal Sharma, manager at Angithi, said.
Connaught Place-based fine dine restaurant Kwality, in fact, saw a dip in footfall as people stayed home to watch the match.
“We are a fine dining-based restaurant. Today’s match had an impact on our dining. We saw less footfall today. We’ve got around 30% less footfall today as compared to weekends in general. We’re still hoping for a good turnaround,” Ajeet Sharma, general manager at Kwality, told ET.
