How Zepto stays relevant ‘every day’

The rise of work-from-home has led to a workout-at-home culture, significantly changing how people engage with fitness and making it more accessible and flexible. Awareness of science-based fitness is also at an all-time high, with people quickly learning about the equipment they need and the products they should consume. Once someone has decided what they wish to buy, Zepto steps in to close the loop.

“We don’t want to advise people on fitness. We are a matter expert. People should consult the right people for it. But when they’ve decided what they want to buy, they should just come to Zepto. That’s what we are empowering,” Chandan Mendiratta, Chief Brand Officer, Zepto, shared at the sidelines of Fitverse, a curated wellness experience, in Bengaluru.

Fitverse saw 60+ health, wellness, and fitness creators, along with brands such as Angel One, UpUrFit, Centrum, Britannia NutriChoice, Epigamia, Lifelong, Hansaplast, Cosmix, Avvatar, Swiss Military and Pintola come together for community-led fitness. The event was critical for Zepto, which is trying to build stronger relevance in the health and wellness space by moving beyond transactional engagement and creating community-led experiences.

Brand discovery on the platform is critical for Zepto, which, as of late 2024, made over ₹83 Crore from ad revenue every month. Advertisements by brands, for visibility and sales, continue to be a top revenue stream for the platform. 

Culture hacking

Zepto’s role in the mix is to help users find the products they need, whether they search by category or by brand. “Zepto helps narrow down a brand as long as you have narrowed down the category you want to buy,” he explains. If a person wants to buy dumbbells, they may search for ‘dumbbells’ as ‘lifelong dumbbells’. The goal for Lifelong is to appear at the top in both cases — category discovery and brand discovery.

A large part of Zepto’s marketing efforts goes into culture hacking. The impact of these initiatives is measured through earned media, tracking how often customers talk about the brand and engage with its content.

Zepto has executed several culture-driven activations, including Diwali and Holi boxes, Raksha Bandhan campaigns, and even a Janmashtami stunt where empty Amul boxes were sent out with the tagline, ‘Makhan Chor got here before you did’. The success of these campaigns is gauged by the conversations they generate on social platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, and the Janmashtami activation, in particular, stood out for the buzz it created.

At it, every day

The focus on fitness stems from a similar intent: to be a meaningful part of consumers’ lives, helping them stay active and healthy every day. 

‘Every day’ is at the heart of how Zepto approaches its brand and campaigns. In fact, summing up Zepto’s brand strategy and playbook in a sentence, he says: “Be at it every day, be relevant every day.” Zepto is an everyday category brand. Consumers use Zepto 4-5 times, pushing the team to be at it every day: everyday moments, cultures, events and festivals, he explains. 

“It's not just about Holi, Diwali, it's about the smallest of events and festivals, how can we be relevant if somebody is looking for workout equipment, somebody is looking for a snack, somebody is looking to party, we have to be relevant everyday, so our playbook is be at it everyday, keep inventing, reinventing new playbooks, that's what we do,” he adds.

Brand building takes time, but the efforts can be quick. So the brand team here at Zepto operates at blazing speed, churning out content to build associations with different events and festivals. While you see the fruits of labour after a while, the seeds can be sown quickly, he explains. The same extends to the brands that partner with Zepto for visibility and sales. 

“Brand managers are pretty smart people. They are doing a pretty good job of growing on a high-growth channel like Zepto. Bigger brands do tend to take longer to make those changes, but they have quick commerce teams, and they are very agile,” he adds. 

At Zepto, and in everything it does, it’s all about speed, creativity, and consistency, showing up for consumers every day in every moment that matters and making sure relevance is constant, not occasional. It’s about building relationships and showing up every day, in every way that matters. The platform will continue to do so in 2026 and beyond.