Quick-commerce firms push deeper into smaller cities as metro growth slows | Start Ups

“While Metros now reflect a largely mature quick commerce footprint, Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities continue to offer some headroom for expansion,” the Bernstein report said. “The current dark store presence in many Tier-1 and Tier-2 clusters is only in the early innings of build out, with large pockets of demand yet to be formally serviced.”

E-commerce companies have already started scaling up quick-commerce operations in these locations. Amazon said it will expand its ultra-fast delivery service, Amazon Now, to 100 cities across India, as it steps up investments in rapid-commerce logistics and fulfillment infrastructure. The company plans to scale the service through more than 1,000 micro-fulfillment centers as it expands beyond metros into smaller cities. Amazon Now, which offers delivery within minutes, will be rolled out in cities including Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, among others, in addition to existing operations in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.