Bengaluru: The quick commerce race is no longer mainly about reaching new neighbourhoods. It is becoming a fight over the same pincodes. India’s five largest operators added close to 900 dark stores between April and July this year, with Blinkit, Flipkart Minutes and Amazon Now leading the expansion, according to estimates by equity research firm Bernstein.Eternal-owned Blinkit added 289 stores, taking its network to 2,511. Walmart-owned Flipkart Minutes added 262 stores to reach 1,003. Amazon Now added an estimated 250 stores, nearly doubling its network to 600-700 locations.Together, the latest quick-commerce entrants from Amazon and Flipkart accounted for more than half of the additions. IPO-bound Zepto added 90 stores, taking its count to 1,345, while Swiggy Instamart’s network remained largely unchanged at 1,187.The five companies had around 6,650-6,750 dark stores in July, up from about 5,750-5,850 three months earlier.But their reach did not expand at the same pace. The number of unique pincodes served rose by only 152, to 2,722. Most new stores, therefore, opened in areas where quick-commerce services were already available.The squeeze is sharpest in the metros. Large cities now have about 4,300 dark stores, while Bernstein estimates they can profitably support only around 3,600. Competition has also become more concentrated. In April, all five companies were present in 26% of metro pincodes. By July, that share had risen to 44%.Satish Meena, founder of Datum Intelligence, said Amazon and Flipkart were not chasing quick-commerce profits alone. They were also protecting their larger ecommerce businesses.Grocery orders bring customers back frequently. Once users form that habit, they may begin buying beauty products, electronics and fashion from the same app.“Habit is the real prize,” Meena said. “It is about the top 50-60 million wallets and about which app owns their daily habit.”Reliance’s JioMart is expanding through a different route. It is using the company’s existing retail network instead of relying only on dark stores. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate on Friday reported that JioMart’s average daily grocery orders rose 116% year-on-year in the June quarter. The service reaches about 5,500 pincodes. More than 2,500 Reliance Digital and Reliance Fashion & Lifestyle stores are linked to its two-hour delivery service.Multiple dark stores in the same pincode do not necessarily point to overcapacity. A pincode can span 8-10 sq km, so denser networks are often needed to meet delivery timelines and improve order economics. New entrants, however, may face a longer path to profitability,” said Angshuman Bhattacharya, partner and national leader, consumer product and retail, EY-Parthenon India.
