Online grocer Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, has added 200 “dark stores” that are designed only for deliveries in ten minutes since December.
Blinkit plans to take the number of such mini distribution centres to 1,000 by March. Reliance Retail-owned Milkbasket is more than doubling its warehousing capacity to almost 350,000 sq ft in the National Capital Region to cater to 150,000 orders a day, double the current order size.
Amid a surging third wave of COVID-19 cases in India, while various physical retailers and dine-in restaurants are putting on hold their expansion plans, online grocers like Blinkit, BigBasket, and MilkBasket are making an aggressive push to take advantage of the growing demand for quick online deliveries.
To be sure, online grocery platforms have already been in an expansion mode as millions of Indians descended on digital commerce due to the pandemic. But the third wave in India is prompting them to be even more aggressive.
According to Rohit Sharma, head of supply chain at Blinkit, in the 3rd wave, Blinkit’s pace of expansion has doubled. The company operated about 300 dark stores until December; it has since added 200 more, spread over about 3,000 sq ft each. “We will double the number of dark stores to 1,000 by March,” Sharma said.
Blinkit, which operates in around 40 cities, is also expanding into the eastern region, including Punjab, Bhopal, and Nashik, among others. Blinkit’s rival, Tata-owned BigBasket, plans to launch BB Now, its express delivery service that delivers products in 10–20 minutes, joining the growing space of quick commerce.
Currently, Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, Dunzo, and Zepto are active in that space. TK Balakumar, chief operating officer at BigBasket, said his company plans to increase its existing warehousing capacity by about 40% and will open more than 300 dark stores in the coming financial year starting in April. “This will lead to us increasing our number of orders from the current 300,000 to 500,000-plus per day,” he said.
Online grocers said orders in various cities have gone up by 30–40% during this round of the COVID wave.
MilkBasket is currently catering to about 70,000 orders per day in the NCR. Its new 150,000 sq. ft. warehouse in the region will be ready next month. “There is excess demand,” said a person familiar with MilkBasket’s plans. “They are already running at 110% of capacity.” MilkBasket operates in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, and is set to enter Jaipur later this month.