Flipkart Eyeing Up To 550 Dark Stores Ahead Of ‘Big Billion Days’: Report

Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart is reportedly looking to expand its dark store count to 500-550 ahead of its ‘Big Billion Days’ sale this year.

The Bengaluru-based company will have 300 such mini warehouses by March, as it has grown to challenge market leaders like Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, ET reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Flipkart has declined to comment on the Inc42’s queries pertaining to the development.

“They (Flipkart) are on track to cross around 300 by March end. The over 500-store target indicates the firm’s plan to be ready before its flagship sale which typically occurs during October-November,” one of the sources was quoted as saying in the report.

It is to note that the development comes in light of Flipkart’s aggressive expansion in the quick commerce space.

In November last year, Flipkart’s chief corporate affairs officer Rajneesh Kumar told news agency PTI that the company has been planning to expand ‘Flipkart Minutes’ to more cities in the near future. However, he did not provide any timeline for the expansion.

Until then, Flipkart expanded its quick commerce service ‘Minutes’ for Delhi users in September, after piloting in Bengaluru in August.

Notably, multiple startups across sectors such as Ola and Delhivery have also been considering setting up their dark stores in the past year.

Meanwhile, Swiggy is looking to catch up with the emerging quick commerce rivals by expanding the size of its Instamart dark stores and has been engaged in the process of operationalising ‘mega dark stores’ with an area of 8,000-10,000 sq ft in several pockets of Bengaluru.

Furthermore, foodtech major Zomato is now looking to open more dark stores, in January, for its quick commerce arm in smaller cities over the next year.

Marketplace arm of Flipkart, Flipkart Internet’s revenue grew 21% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 17,907.3 Cr for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), according to the regulatory filings from Tofler. The company reported a decline of 41% in its losses, down to INR 2,358 Cr.

Updated at 03:18 PM

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