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“We are making an important announcement today. We are going to set up 100 dark stores in FY27 for vertical quick commerce. That’s the fourth growth lever that we are investing in,” Abhishek Bansal, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Shadowfax, said during the Q4 FY26 earnings call.
According to management, vertical quick commerce offers significantly higher value per engagement than horizontal fulfilment, and investors have also tightened their purse strings for the latter. Therefore, building in-house logistics for horizontal players such as Blinkit, Instamart, Flipkart Minutes, and Amazon Now does not make sense.
“We believe 3PL (third-party logistics) is going to be the natural answer for vertical quick commerce,” said Bansal.
Why is Shadowfax betting on quick commerce? According to the management, working with vertical quick commerce companies is more profitable than working with horizontal quick commerce players, as the market is not controlled by one or two large players. Therefore, Shadowfax is not dependent on a single client for revenue in this space.
“Given we are the market leaders over there (vertical quick commerce), we have also been able to maintain pricing as we scale up,” the CEO said.
In its investor presentation, Shadowfax said that revenue from quick commerce deliveries grew 80% year-on-year in FY26, helping the company further cement its position as the top 3PL player in India in this space.
While quick commerce has failed in developed markets such as China and the US, it has been gaining traction in India. A recent report by Inc42 suggests that the Indian e-commerce market is poised to grow from $165 billion in 2026 to $450 billion by 2031, while quick commerce players are expected to clock $68 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) over the period.
“Vertical quick commerce is the newest game in town. Every category is going the quick commerce way. It has become the go-to lever for digital penetration. We serve young customers seeking premium products across grocery, gourmet food, childcare, and fashion. Even items that had always been offline, including construction materials, spare parts, and hardware, are shifting to 30-minute deliveries,” the Shadowfax co-founder said.
Amazon Shipping & data security concerns: As part of its strategy to drive growth in quick commerce, the company has also partnered with Amazon Now. Shadowfax also expects significant wallet share gains as Amazon’s quick delivery business scales up. This comes at a time when the e-commerce company has also launched its own 3PL service in India called Amazon Shipping.
However, Shadowfax claimed that Amazon’s 3PL service will not succeed in a market like India because of data security concerns.
“We’ve been observing some of these captive arms coming in and trying to…
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