India’s quick-commerce sector has emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments within Indian retail, with the platforms Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart rapidly expanding their presence across the country. A report from Bain, cited in a Reuters story, states that in 2024, over two-thirds of all e-grocery orders came in from quick commerce, with its total market share growing about 5x from 2022 to $6-7 billion.
While much of the news coverage is focused on customer acquisition and order growth, the quick commerce business model relies on a large and complex ecosystem beyond the screen: warehouses, dark stores, transportation infrastructure, supply-chain technology and automation.
As these companies expand their footprint across metros and smaller cities, the demand for related infrastructure and services is rising alongside them. While most investor attention remains focused on the consumer-facing side of the business, several listed smallcap companies operating behind the scenes could potentially benefit from this infrastructure buildout. (Under SEBI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and AMFI, the Association of Mutual Funds in India, a smallcap company is any listed company that is ranked 251st and below based on full market capitalisation. Market capitalisation or market cap is the total market value of a company’s outstanding shares, calculated by multiplying its current share price by the number of shares outstanding.)
Logistics: Moving inventory across the supply chain
Quick-commerce companies don’t simply deliver products to consumers. They must continuously replenish thousands of SKUs (stock keeping units) across dark stores and fulfilment centres. This requires:
- Long distance and inter-city transportation
- Warehousing
- Inventory movement
- Supply-chain management
- Time-sensitive deliveries
As order volumes rise and platforms expand geographically, logistics providers become an essential part of the ecosystem, and two small caps stand out.
- Mahindra Logistics: Mahindra Logistics is one of India’s largest third-party logistics (3PL) providers, offering transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding and supply chain solutions. The company operates integrated logistics networks across multiple industries. Quick-commerce companies require extensive warehousing and inventory management infrastructure. Mahindra Logistics has been expanding its warehousing footprint and logistics capabilities, positioning it as a potential beneficiary of rising fulfilment and supply-chain demand.
- TCI Express: TCI Express is an express logistics company focused on time-definite delivery services across road, rail and air networks. The company operates a nationwide express delivery network and specialises in time-sensitive cargo movement. While it is not a last-mile grocery delivery company, TCI may stand to benefit from quick commerce’s need to rapidly move inventory between suppliers, warehouses and dark stores/fulfilment centres.
Packaging: Ensuring inventory reaches customers intact
Groceries can’t be bought, sold, or moved without the right packaging materials, from giant cartons to the paper bags used for delivery. Every quick-commerce order requires packaging at different points in the supply chain. As quick commerce grows, more orders means an increased demand for cartons, folding cartons, corrugated boxes, secondary packaging, FMCG packaging, bags, and labels. While it may not seem as apparent as logistics, packaging volumes can grow alongside growth in retail activity.
- TCPL Packaging: TCPL Packaging Ltd is one of India’s leading packaging manufacturers, making paperboard-based packaging materials and flexible packaging products. Its product portfolio is broadly divided into three segments: folding cartons, specialty and gift packaging, and flexible packaging. For consumer-facing industries such as FMCG, food, beverages, and retail, TCPL plays a key role in supplying the packaging that helps products move efficiently through modern distribution and fulfilment networks. Almost every product moving through a quick-commerce network ultimately arrives in some form of consumer packaging. As FMCG and grocery volumes increase, packaging suppliers like TCPL may benefit.
Supply chain technology: Real-time progress for timely delivery
Quick commerce is not just a logistics business, but a technology business as well. Managing thousands of SKUs across hundreds of dark stores requires sophisticated software to track inventory, route orders and coordinate fulfilment in real time. Quick-commerce companies require sophisticated automation, inventory management systems, and warehouse software to handle growing order volumes. As dark store networks scale to thousands of locations across India, operational efficiency becomes critical, and companies specialising in this technology stand to gain.
- Unicommerce eSolutions: Founded in 2012, Unicommerce eSolutions operates a SaaS platform that manages e-commerce operations for brands, sellers, and logistics companies, providing order management, warehouse management and inventory management software. As fulfilment networks become denser and inventory visibility becomes more important, software firms operating in this segment could become indirect beneficiaries of India’s growing quick-commerce ecosystem. Unicommerce already works with one of the main quick commerce companies, Zepto, offering their existing customers a direct plug-and-play middleware integration with the app. This connection allows thousands of consumer brands (D2C, FMCG, and grocery retail) that use Unicommerce to seamlessly sell and automate their supply chains directly on Zepto, manage dark store inventory better, and ensure more accurate order fulfillment.
The quick commerce sector is largely viewed through the lens of giants like Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart, with a focus on order numbers and expansion plans. However, the industry’s growth depends on a much broader network of logistics providers, packaging manufacturers and automation companies working behind the scenes — and all these platforms require the same underlying infrastructure. As the sector expands, these smallcap ecosystem providers could stand to gain just as much as the consumer-facing quick-commerce companies themselves.
Sources
Govt to increase checks on quick commerce dark stores amid hygiene issues
The Evolution of Quick Commerce in India: A Sectoral Analysis
India’s quick commerce sector made two-thirds of all 2024 e-grocery orders, report says
Unicommerce eSolutions Ltd share price
JM Financial: Deep-Dive: Quick Commerce
Rise of Quick Commerce in India: Business Models and Infrastructure Requirements
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