Quick Commerce: The Rise Of Dark Stores In India. What Was Convenience Earlier, Now A Cornerstone Of Urban Consumption
Niranjana Prasad
June 24, 2025. 4 minute Read
Quick Commerce and the Evolution of Dark Stores
We live in a world of 10-minute cravings. Whether it’s milk at midnight, a samosa before your Zoom call, or a PS5 controller at 2 AM, India’s quick commerce wave has answered it all. But what powers this sorcery of speed?
Quick commerce was born out of a very Indian need: convenience in chaos. Since FY21, its GMV shot up from $300 million to $3 billion. And it’s not stopping—India’s quick commerce market is projected to hit $40 billion in the next 6 years.
No matter how many negative news stories there are, we still buy from Instamart/Zepto because walking to the store at 11 PM is a task, but a 10-minute quick delivery is more convenient.Â
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With The One Liner, let us see what makes the every 10-minute delivery magic happen and the secret of a silent superhero: the dark store.
The Dark Store Phenomenon: Unpacking the Model
Operational Strategies of Quick Commerce Warehouses
Dark stores are the unsung infrastructure here. These are micro-warehouses (closed to the public) located deep within cities. From the outside, they might look like any other building. But inside, they house thousands of Stock Keeping Units (SKU), advanced inventory systems, and lightning-speed pickers.
Key Characteristics
- No Entry, Just Efficiency: Dark stores aren’t open to walk-in customers. They’re focused entirely on rapid order fulfillment—no window shopping, just nonstop packing.
- Mini Warehouses with Mega Impact: These compact spaces are optimized for speed and storage. Every inch is planned for quick movement and organization.
- Hot Inventory on Hand: From mangoes to mobile accessories, dark stores are stocked with what urban India wants, when they want it.
- A City-Wide Spiderweb: Dark stores form tight delivery grids across cities, cutting delivery times and improving coverage in high-demand neighborhoods.
- The Last-Mile Legends: With a radius of just 2-3 km, pickers pack orders instantly, and delivery partners cover the rest in under 10 minutes. That’s faster than your kettle boils.
- Brains Behind the Speed: These aren’t just storerooms—they run on smart tech like predictive stocking, real-time inventory tracking, and route optimisation.
- Delight, Delivered: It’s not just fast—it’s reliable. With low-cost deliveries and high product availability, dark stores keep urban consumers coming back.
At scale, one dark store can process 1,400 orders per day, making the model viable with high throughput.
This entire system operates on a hub-and-spoke supply chain. Company-owned Mother Warehouses (MWs) serve as the hub, replenishing inventory to about 40 franchise-owned dark stores or spokes each day. This allows dark stores to ensure delivery service is available around the clock by staying lean and focusing on high-turnover products.
Also, mother warehouses are poised to become commerce hubs for long-tail, high-value, and infrequent purchases, such as large ice cream tubs or iPhones. This minimizes space usage in dark stores and optimizes efficiency.
Impact on Urban Retail and the Gig Economy
Kirana Stores and the Urban Fabric
outright—it’s reshaping them. Over 100 Blinkit dark stores are franchise-owned, often by former kirana operators. In essence, it’s not that kirana stores are being wiped out—but rather, they’re evolving. However, traditional shops do face stiff competition due to wider assortments and faster service from dark stores.
The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) also emerges as a democratizing alternative, aiming to empower small retailers with digital tools to compete in a fast-evolving market.
Ultra-Fast Delivery and New Buying Habits
Indian consumers are built differently. We’re used to instant service, thanks to kirana stores just around the corner. So quick commerce feels like an upgrade, not a disruption. Our fixed pricing (MRP) model and limited storage spaces at home reduce the incentive for bulk-buying, making top-up shopping a daily habit.
Over 31% of urban Indians now use quick commerce for their primary grocery shopping. And it’s not just about groceries anymore. From Decathlon kits to PS5 consoles, the category expansion is real.
Quick commerce, too, mirrors the K-shaped recovery—while urban elites enjoy hyper-fast convenience, vast sections of India still grapple with basic digital access and uneven economic growth.”
Gig Economy and Workforce Expansion
Behind the 10-minute magic is a complex web of humans hustling. From pickers and packers to delivery executives, dark stores employ around eight people per shift, covering three shifts daily.
Delivery partners, often sourced through third-party labor agencies, are the beating heart of this model. Many wear their uniforms—yellow, purple, or orange—with pride.
Thanks to low labor costs, India’s delivery fees remain affordable (₹30–₹50), compared to $5–15 in the West. This affordability is a key factor enabling the mass adoption of quick commerce in India.Yet, not all that glitters is instant—reports of toxic culture at players like Zepto remind us that rapid growth sometimes skips the human checkboxes.
The Profit Equation: How Quick Commerce is Winning?
Economics, Scale, and Profitability
At its core, quick commerce thrives on scale, not just speed. The more orders a dark store handles, the lower the cost per order—and the closer the path to profitability.
Initial investments go into building the store, securing inventory, and setting up the tech infrastructure. But once operational, dark stores become efficiency engines. High throughput, tech-backed precision, and a tight delivery radius allow platforms to keep fulfillment costs low.
What’s changing now is the revenue game. Platforms are going beyond groceries:
- Launching private labels for meat, dairy, and snacks.
- Introducing larger stock-up packs to tap into monthly grocery habits.
- Rolling out loyalty programs that drive user retention and repeat orders.
- Even exploring financial services like co-branded cards.
Losses are shrinking, margins are rising, and what started as a convenience is now becoming a cornerstone of urban consumption.With these expansions, quick commerce isn’t just aiming for your fridge—it’s gunning for your phone’s home screen. The rise of super apps is in motion, as platforms move toward bundling convenience, commerce, and payments in one sleek space.
Quick commerce isn’t just surviving—it’s scaling smart.
Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Quick Commerce
A business goldmine
This sector has become a consumer revolution.
1. Dark Store Franchising
Want to be the next neighborhood fulfillment ninja? Franchising a dark store, especially in Tier-2/3 cities, is increasingly viable with proven unit economics.
2. Manpower & Delivery Fleet Operations
With demand for delivery partners rising, running a logistics manpower agency is a high-potential, if high-attrition, business.
3. Quick Commerce Native Brands
Think GoZero Ice Cream, which scaled 700% last year. Products that are small, impulse-driven, and easy to deliver are made for this model.
4. Quick Fashion & Food
Startups like Slick are delivering fashion in 60 minutes. Swish and Protein Chef are betting on instant food. While food delivery faces tighter margins, niche players with diverse menus and healthy options may just crack the code.
Final Thoughts
The Future of Fast is Here
Quick commerce is no longer just a trend—it’s a lifestyle. With India’s dense population, unique consumption patterns, and tech-powered logistics, dark stores are reshaping how we shop.
This isn’t just about convenience. It’s about opportunity—whether you’re a franchisee setting up a dark store, a startup launching impulse-buy brands, or a delivery partner earning a livelihood.
The secret sauce? It’s not just speed. It’s scale, strategy, and smart tech. As players like Zepto, Blinkit, and Swiggy Instamart continue to diversify offerings—from Decathlon kits to chai and samosas—quick commerce is transitioning from grocery to everything commerce.
For entrepreneurs and investors alike, this is the moment. Whether it’s entering non-metros with dark store franchises or creating a snack that sells out on Zepto Cafe, the runway is long and fast.
In the end, we’re not just witnessing faster deliveries. We’re watching a quiet revolution in Indian retail.
Reference link:Â
https://www.jmfl.com/Common/getFile/3278
https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/analysis/2024/five-key-trends-shaping-the-future-of-grocery-shopping-in-india/
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