Competitive intensity in India’s quick commerce market remains high and is unlikely to ease in the near term, according to Amitesh Jha, CEO of Swiggy’s quick commerce business Instamart. With standalone players like Zepto and BigBasket scaling rapidly and e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart entering the fray, Jha said the space continues to see sustained pressure — even as newer entrants are only beginning to test the waters.
“There are new players entering the market. Some of them are taking baby steps,” Jha said during Swiggy’s Q1 FY26 analyst call. “We believe that it (competitive intensity) will remain at a heightened level, and it is also something we are baking into our plans.”
Though Jha did not name specific companies, his remarks come shortly after Amazon rolled out its quick commerce offering, Amazon Now, in Bengaluru and Delhi — signalling its intention to compete in the space, albeit slowly. Flipkart, which recently entered the quick commerce race with “Minutes” has been steadily ramping up scale.
This comes even as incumbents are recalibrating strategy, following an intense expansion cycle.
In Q4 FY25 (January–March), Instamart added 316 new dark stores — a significant jump from its usual pace of 50–100 stores per quarter — taking its total count to 1,021. But in Q1 FY26, that figure dropped sharply, with just 41 stores added, bringing the total to 1,062.
In comparison, Blinkit (owned by Zomato) added 243 new stores in the same quarter, taking its dark store footprint to 1,544.
Despite slowing expansion, Swiggy said it is confident in the depth of its existing footprint, which spans 4.3 million square feet across 127 cities. The current focus, according to Jha, is on driving growth within these cities rather than entering new ones.
“We believe that we have reached a stage that allows us to be very comfortable with the kind of service that we are giving to customers, and the growth headroom that we have created,” Jha said. “Our next phase of network expansion will be based on these geographies… rather than spreading ourselves into figuring out where the next growth will come from.”
He added that while the company is open to expansion beyond 127 cities, such moves will be “opportunity-based,” depending on how the market evolves. Swiggy sees low penetration in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as a significant growth lever — but wants to go deep before going wide.
Instamart reported a gross order value (GOV) of Rs 5,655 crore in Q1 FY26, up 107.6 percent year-on-year and 21.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. The business added 1.2 million monthly transacting users during the period, with average order value at Rs 612.
As rivals expand their networks and new players cautiously step in, Swiggy is now betting on operational depth and stronger unit economics to stay ahead in India’s high-stakes quick commerce race.
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