How Zepto Improved Latency by 40% with MongoDB Atlas
Published on 1/16/2025 | 4 min read
Published on 1/16/2025 | 4 min read
Zepto, a leading player in the quick commerce industry, has leveraged MongoDB Atlas to overcome significant scalability challenges, enabling it to deliver on its promise of 10-minute grocery delivery. As highlighted by Sachin Chawla, VP for India & South Asia at MongoDB, “Behind Zepto’s 10-minute delivery promise is a database built for speed!” By transitioning from monolithic relational database systems to MongoDB’s NoSQL architecture, Zepto reduced latency by 40% for critical APIs and scaled its infrastructure to handle six times more traffic.
Founded in 2021, Zepto disrupted the Indian grocery delivery market with its bold promise of 10-minute deliveries. However, this rapid growth—marked by $1.5 billion in annualised sales by mid-2024—exposed significant limitations in its legacy systems. High latency, performance bottlenecks, and an inability to deliver real-time analytics hindered operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Mayank Agarwal, Senior Architect at Zepto, shared during a presentation at MongoDB.local, “We had a big monolith, and all the components were powered by PostgreSQL and a few Redis clusters. As our business grew, we faced many performance issues and restrictions on the velocity at which we wanted to operate.”
The company’s dependence on Redis clusters for caching also proved to be a bottleneck. Kshitij Singh, Technical Lead at Zepto, explained, “We had a pretty huge Redis setup which we wanted to get rid of, as we were not able to scale it further. MongoDB’s in-memory caching solved this problem for us.”
Zepto sought to transition from a monolithic structure to a microservices-based architecture. To support this shift, it needed a NoSQL database capable of handling complex, nested document structures and array-based queries. After evaluating various options, Zepto selected MongoDB Atlas due to its exceptional performance and in-memory caching capabilities.
“The queries were very performant, given the required indexes we had created, and that gave us confidence,” noted Agarwal. MongoDB’s in-memory caching addressed the scaling challenges posed by Redis, while features like real-time data archival and analytical nodes separated customer-facing workloads from internal queries. Singh added, “This ensured that customer performance wasn’t compromised.”
The adoption of MongoDB Atlas significantly improved Zepto’s operational efficiency. Key outcomes included:
Singh highlighted, “Post the migration, we observed a latency reduction of up to 40% for key APIs and handled throughput spikes, such as during campaigns, by enabling data compression and other optimisations.”
Zepto’s success story is further strengthened by its strategic partnership with AWS. The company uses AWS to power its end-to-end operations, from product discovery to last-mile logistics. Kaivalya Vohra, Co-founder of Zepto, stated, “We started Zepto about three years ago with just one dark store in Mumbai. Today, we’ve grown to over 200 dark stores and annualised sales north of INR 10,000 crore.”
AWS’ managed services and credits from the AWS Activate program allowed Zepto to quickly develop its minimum viable product (MVP). Singh added, “AWS helped us achieve a quick MVP...and solutions no one had tried before.” Generative AI solutions on AWS have further enabled faster customer issue resolution and enhanced satisfaction.
Despite its technological successes, Zepto has recently faced backlash over alleged differential pricing between Android and iPhone users. Customers have raised concerns on social media, speculating that prices may be influenced by demographic and device-specific data. While some believe Android users are being favoured, Zepto has yet to address the issue officially.
Zepto’s migration to MongoDB Atlas has positioned the company as a leader in quick commerce, enabling it to deliver on its promise of 10-minute deliveries with greater speed and scalability. Combined with AWS’ robust infrastructure, Zepto has achieved significant operational milestones, proving that technological innovation can drive customer satisfaction and business growth. However, the company must address customer concerns about pricing algorithms to maintain its reputation in an increasingly competitive market.