Ola Dash to expand dark stores network to 500 in six months

Ola on Friday said Ola Dash, its quick commerce service, aims to expand its dark store network to 500 dark stores spread across 20 cities in the next six months.

The expansion of Ola Dash, available on the Ola app, will make it the largest dark store network in India, according to a statement.

Ola Dash currently services nine cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Lucknow – through its 'Store to Door' service in 10 minutes, spread across 200 dark stores.

The range of products available on Ola Dash includes fresh produce, snacks and beverages, instant food, home care products, fruits & vegetables and cooking essentials.

Ola Dash, which offers an assortment of over 2,500 stock-keeping units (SKUs), aims to grow the business, taking the order size to over five lakh per day by the year-end.

''Ola has been a leader in the on-demand mobility business for more than a decade. Our advanced geolocation tech, coupled with a very low cost of customer acquisition, gives us a unique advantage to bring the benefits of mobility to all.

''Our quick commerce service is an essential part of our connect with customers as they rely on technology and online service to fulfil their daily needs,'' Ola Chief Marketing Officer Anshul Khandelwal said.

Khandelwal added that over the next few months, the reach and presence will be expanded to more cities and customers.

While traditional e-commerce deliveries take a day or longer, quick commerce (or q-commerce) enables customers to get small quantities of goods to customers in a shorter period of time.

Ola Dash competes with q-commerce services offered by players like Zomato-backed Grofers, SoftBank-backed Swiggy and Dunzo.

Earlier this month, Dunzo had announced that Reliance Retail has bought a 25.8 per cent stake in the company for USD 200 million (around Rs 1,488 crore). Last month, food delivery platform Swiggy had announced an investment of USD 700 million (about Rs 5,250 crore) in its express grocery delivery service Instamart.

According to a report by RedSeer, the quick commerce sector in India is expected to grow to USD 5 billion by 2025 from the current USD 0.3 billion.

Quick commerce is growing in India on the back of trends like a shift in consumer behaviour, entry of big players like BigBasket and Grofers, and a rise of instant delivery platforms, according to the report.