Flipkart, Amazon Ramp Up Dark Stores Amid Strong H2 Growth in Quick Commerce

With 53 million distinct transacting clients, Flipkart Minutes, the company's fast commerce platform, saw a 16X increase in the second half of the year. Flipkart Minutes saw significant growth during the holiday season, with demand for products like jewellery, high-end gadgets, home décor, and mobile phones increasing by about ten times in the second half (H2) of 2025 compared to H1 of that year.

In 2025, Flipkart, a latecomer to the rapid commerce industry, claimed to have extended its services to over 30 cities, including both Tier I and II towns. These changes coincide with incumbents accumulating more capital to grow and hold onto their market position, as e-commerce behemoths Amazon and Flipkart seek to broaden their rapid commerce services.

Amazon to Open New Dark Stores

Amazon intends to expand its network in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai by opening up to two dark fulfilment stores every day, with the goal of opening 300 dark stores by the end of this year. In contrast, a MoneyControl article states that Flipkart Minutes intends to open 800 dark stores by the end of the month. Flipkart's Group CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, revealed in April that since the company's late 2024 launch, it has opened around 300 dark shopfronts. Before the holiday season begins, Amazon has around 100 micro-fulfilment centres.

Quick Commerce New Battleground in Indian Market

Swiggy's shareholders approved its INR 10,000 crore fundraising earlier this week, enabling the rapid commerce and food delivery company to increase its war chest for the hyperlocal turf battle. Media sources state that at a discounted issue price of INR 375 per unit, the Sriharsha Majety-led company's QIP was oversubscribed 4.5 times.

With the fundraising, Swiggy's current cash corpus is at INR 17,000 crore, compared to INR 18,314 crore for Zomato and Blinkit parent company Eternal as of the September quarter. Investors may view the cash runway as a prelude to gaining market share, as evidenced by the fact that other firms, such as Zepto, are also earning larger cheques at higher valuations.

A player with greater balance-sheet power can conduct deeper and longer promotions, which frequently influences market behaviour. These patterns demonstrate how, following a brief period of discipline, the industry has returned to expansion mode.