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Flipkart Minutes has overtaken Swiggy Instamart in the number of dark stores across India’s top 10 quick-commerce cities, with 627 stores compared with 615 for Swiggy, according to a CLSA report. The 10 cities have a combined 3,536 dark stores, led by Blinkit with 969 and Zepto with 828. Flipkart Minutes has also moved ahead of Swiggy in pincode coverage within these markets. Bengaluru remains the largest market in the sample, while Blinkit leads in six cities and Zepto in three. The figures highlight the growing competition to build dense delivery networks.
Flipkart Minutes has moved ahead of Swiggy Instamart in dark-store count across India’s top 10 quick-commerce cities, with 627 stores compared with Swiggy’s 615, according to CLSA’s Quick Commerce Map. The narrow gap reflects the rapid expansion of Flipkart’s quick-commerce network as established players continue adding stores across major urban markets.
Together, the 10 cities have 3,536 dark stores across the tracked platforms. Blinkit has the largest network with 969 stores, followed by Zepto with 828, Flipkart Minutes with 627, Swiggy Instamart with 615 and BigBasket with 497.
Blinkit has the highest number of stores in six of the 10 cities — Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Ahmedabad. Zepto leads in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai, while Flipkart Minutes has the largest store network in Kolkata.
CLSA said quick-commerce companies are increasing their presence in existing markets while taking a more measured approach when entering new geographies. According to the report, newer markets generally have smaller dark-store networks as companies assess local demand and the viability of their operations before expanding further. At the same time, emerging players are targeting areas where established platforms have relatively limited coverage in an effort to build an early presence.
Within the top 10 cities, Flipkart Minutes has already surpassed Swiggy Instamart in both dark-store count and pincode coverage, the report said.
Bengaluru is the largest quick-commerce market covered in the analysis, with 735 stores across the tracked platforms. Blinkit operates 180 stores in the city, narrowly ahead of Zepto’s 177. Swiggy Instamart has 143 stores, while Flipkart Minutes has 119.
Delhi ranks second with 531 stores. Blinkit has a wider lead in the city with 188 stores, followed by Zepto with 112, Flipkart Minutes with 102 and Swiggy Instamart with 69.
Flipkart Minutes has a particularly strong lead over Swiggy in Kolkata, where it operates 72 dark stores compared with Swiggy’s 35. In Delhi, the respective counts are 102 and 69, while Mumbai has 67 Flipkart Minutes stores and 62 Swiggy Instamart stores.
Swiggy, however, continues to expand its network. The broader CLSA analysis found that it added the highest number of dark stores among the three largest players across the 10 cities over the past month. This points to a strategy of increasing store density in markets where it already operates rather than relying only on expansion into new cities.
Blinkit continues to have the widest network among the major players, with 969 stores across the 10 cities. Its overall geographic reach is also broader, with an exclusive presence in more than 180 cities, according to the analysis. Zepto remains second in the top-10-city comparison with 828 stores, while Flipkart Minutes’ lead over Swiggy places it increasingly close to the next level of scale.
The expansion of dark stores is important because their location directly affects delivery coverage and the distance inventory needs to travel to customers. A denser network can allow platforms to serve more pincodes, maintain wider product availability and make greater use of their delivery infrastructure.
CLSA noted that the figures are indicative rather than exact store counts. The analysis also excludes Amazon and JioMart from the total. Despite these limitations, the data shows that Blinkit continues to maintain a clear network advantage, while Flipkart Minutes is rapidly closing the gap with Swiggy Instamart as competition for scale in quick commerce intensifies.
Source PTI
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