Vishal Mega Mart turns 767 stores into quick-commerce fulfilment hubs

Indian retailers are using existing stores to serve rapid-delivery orders instead of building dark-store networks. Vishal Mega Mart now fulfils quick-commerce orders from 767 of 819 outlets, while Reliance and Spencer’s report digital traction; DMart Ready’s contraction underscores the need for local order density.

— Source published Mon, 17 Aug, 2026, 06:20 IST · First seen Mon, 17 Aug, 2026, 06:37 IST · Source Financial Express · BrandWagon

What happened

Vishal Mega Mart · Indian retailers are converting existing outlets into quick-commerce fulfilment hubs to lower dark-store investment. Vishal, Reliance and

Key facts

  • Vishal Mega Mart fulfils quick-commerce orders from 767 of 819 stores across 520 cities
  • 423 Vishal stores are in tier-3 towns
  • Vishal registered users exceeded 14.1 million in Q1FY27, up 44%
  • Quick-commerce contributes 2-9% of Vishal store revenue, at least 5% in most locations
  • Vishal average bill value is about Rs 800
  • 20% of Vishal quick-commerce customers are new
  • Reliance Retail has more than 2,500 fashion and lifestyle stores
  • JioMart covers 5,500 pin codes
  • Reliance grocery digital orders rose 116% year-on-year in Q1FY27
  • Spencer's Jiffy FY26 revenue was Rs 200 crore, up 37%, on 2.6 million orders
  • Jiffy average order value was Rs 760; gross margin Rs 110 per order versus Rs 98 fulfilment cost
  • Tier-2 dark stores need about 800 daily orders to break even versus 1,300 in tier-1 cities
  • DMart Ready cities fell from 25 in FY25 to 18 in FY26 and 11 currently
  • Avenue E-Commerce FY26 sales rose 17%, EBITDA fell 43%, and loss was Rs 307 crore
  • DMart transport costs rose 34%

Why this matters

Retailers with broad, well-located store footprints are increasingly attractive omnichannel partners or targets, while subscale delivery models without sufficient neighborhood demand face higher execution risk.