Bengaluru: Flipkart Minutes has expanded faster than expected across India’s top 10 quick-commerce markets, overtaking Swiggy Instamart in dark-store count, according to a CLSA report released Wednesday, while Eternal Ltd-owned Blinkit remains the clear leader.

The report showed that Flipkart Minutes now operates 627 dark stores across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Gurugram, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, compared with Instamart’s 615.

The Walmart-owned platform has also surpassed Instamart in pincode coverage across the same markets. “Notably, within the top 10 cities, Flipkart Minutes has already surpassed Swiggy Instamart in both dark-store count and pincode coverage,” the brokerage said.

Blinkit remains well ahead, with 969 stores, accounting for about 27% of the 3,536 dark stores CLSA mapped across the 10 cities. Its share rises to more than 34% nationally, according to the brokerage.

Zepto follows with 828 stores, and Tata-owned BigBasket has 497 across the top 10 cities. The report excluded Amazon and JioMart.

Delhi has 531 stores, where Blinkit’s 188 dark stores give it the widest lead in any large city. Zepto leads Hyderabad with 127 of 484 stores, Mumbai with 100 of 372, and Chennai with 93 of 365.

The store network is a competitive weapon rather than simply a measure of capacity. “Dark store market share remains a critical competitive advantage in quick commerce, as network density directly influences delivery speed, assortment breadth and operating efficiency,” the report said.

Stores located closer to customers reduce the distance riders travel, making fast-delivery promises easier to keep. A denser network also allows a platform to keep a wider range of products near buyers, reducing the chance that an item is out of stock.

And once a store handles enough orders per day, fixed costs such as rent, staff salaries, equipment, and inventory handling are spread more thinly. “Higher store density can support faster deliveries, broader assortment availability and improved operating leverage in existing markets,” the report added.

Density alone, however, is not a moat. It pays off only if local demand grows quickly enough to fill the shelves. A race to open stores can otherwise leave platforms with duplicated infrastructure, half-used stores, higher delivery costs and longer losses, according to the report.

CLSA identified this as a potential risk in its outlook for Swiggy. Instamart added the most dark stores among the top three players over the past month, in line with the densification plan it set out at its investor day, according to CLSA.

The brokerage said a “further rise in competitive intensity” could slow growth, while the rapid scale-up of Toing, Swiggy’s budget food-delivery app, and other new food-delivery models could affect its core food-delivery business.

The companies’ latest results show what is at stake. Blinkit has begun translating scale into operating profit, while Instamart and Zepto continue to invest heavily in growth.

In the June quarter, Blinkit reported revenue of ₹15,664 crore and an adjusted Ebitda profit of ₹102 crore, its fifth straight quarter of improvement, with net order value up 86% to ₹17,132 crore and 2,443 stores.

Flipkart hasn't reported standalone figures for its Minutes service.