Flipkart Minutes has overtaken Swiggy Instamart in the number of dark stores across India’s top 10 cities, as the horizontal e-commerce major continues to expand its quick-commerce network.
Flipkart Minutes had 627 dark stores across these cities as of August 2026, compared with 615 for Swiggy Instamart, according to a CLSA report.
The brokerage firm also said Flipkart Minutes has surpassed Instamart in pincode coverage across the top 10 cities.
Blinkit continues to lead the market with 969 dark stores across the top 10 cities, followed by Zepto with 828, Flipkart Minutes with 627, Swiggy Instamart with 615 and BigBasket with 497.
Together, these five players operate 3,536 dark stores across the top 10 markets tracked by CLSA.
Flipkart Minutes has overtaken Swiggy Instamart in the number of dark stores across India’s top 10 cities, as the horizontal e-commerce major continues to expand its quick-commerce network.
Flipkart Minutes had 627 dark stores across these cities as of August 2026, compared with 615 for Swiggy Instamart, according to a CLSA report. The brokerage firm also said Flipkart Minutes has surpassed Instamart in pincode coverage across the top 10 cities.
Blinkit continues to lead the market with 969 dark stores across the top 10 cities, followed by Zepto with 828, Flipkart Minutes with 627, Swiggy Instamart with 615 and BigBasket with 497. Together, these five players operate 3,536 dark stores across the top 10 markets tracked by CLSA.
The report includes Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, while excluding Amazon and JioMart from its calculations.
Bengaluru has the largest dark-store network with 735 stores, followed by Delhi with 531 and Hyderabad with 484. Mumbai has 372 stores, while Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Ahmedabad have 365, 293, 248, 225, 146 and 137 stores, respectively.
Blinkit remains well ahead of its rivals, accounting for around 30% of dark stores across the top 10 cities and more than 34% nationally. It has the highest store count in six of the 10 cities, while Zepto leads in three of the remaining four.
The report shows quick commerce is spreading to more cities, with dark stores now present across 477 cities. While big players are growing in existing markets, newer players are entering smaller cities with a few stores to test demand before expanding. Flipkart Minutes has increased its presence in Tier III cities 42 times over the past year, including cities such as Ara and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
CLSA is more positive on Eternal, the parent of Blinkit, than Swiggy. It has given Eternal a target price of Rs 506, 53.5% above its August 25 closing price of Rs 329.6, while Swiggy has a target of Rs 312, just 8.7% above its closing price of Rs 286.9.
The findings show that competition in quick commerce is getting tougher. Blinkit is still ahead, but Flipkart Minutes has moved past Instamart in the top 10 cities, showing how quickly the market is changing as companies add more dark stores and enter new cities.
