Location-specific discounts: How BigBasket is using store-level pricing to fix dark store economics
BigBasket revamps its dark stores network offering variable discounts based on store performance. Its aim: grow low-traffic Unnati stores into profitable Pragati ones. This comes in the backdrop of intensifying competition in quick commerce as Swiggy, Amazon, and Blinkit expand rapidly.
As competition intensifies in instant grocery delivery, Tata group–owned BigBasket is reworking its dark store network and offering discounts based on how individual stores perform on order volumes.
Dark stores reporting lower volumes offer steeper discounts to boost demand, while high-volume stores reduce discounts for the same items and quantities.
About a year ago, in early 2025, BigBasket began revamping its dark stores into IBBN (Integrated Big Basket Now) stores, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. These stores are larger and stock significantly more products than traditional dark stores. Both sources declined to be identified.
This was a part of the company’s larger plan to double down its focus on its quick commerce model known as BB Now.
IBBN "was initially started as a pilot project in a select few cities," said the first of the two people cited above. It later on expanded nationally, seeing the success of the model.
BigBasket originally built its business around delivery slots where customers selected time windows and orders were fulfilled from larger warehouses. Over time, the company developed a quick-commerce arm called BBNow to serve faster deliveries within minutes, reflecting shifting consumer demand and intense competition from players such as Swiggy, Blinkit and Zepto.
BigBasket has since “fully pivoted to quick commerce," said the first person, integrating its traditional and rapid delivery offerings into a unified model that prioritizes faster fulfilment.
An email sent to BigBasket on Friday, 9 January seeking comments remained unanswered at the time of publishing this story.
Discounts vary in Unnati, Pragati stores
An IBBN dark store typically spans around 20,000 sq. ft. and stocks 40,000–50,000 SKUs, said the second person. SKU refers to stock keeping units, unique identifiers used for inventory tracking.
A Bernstein report from November 2025 noted that Swiggy Instamart operates dark stores averaging about 4,200 sq. ft., while Blinkit’s range between 3,100 and 3,500 sq. ft. The larger IBBN format allows BigBasket to offer wider assortments, but success still depends on store-level economics.
But the success of the model still hinges on store-level economics. Satish Meena, founder of Datum Intelligence, said dark stores must be evaluated like any other physical retail outlet. “If you are running a chain, each store has to be profitable on its own," he said.
IBBN stores are classified into two categories—Unnati and Pragati. Unnati, meaning “growing," currently service about 500 orders a day. BigBasket aims to raise this to around 1,500 daily orders for these stores to break even. Pragati stores, meaning “progress," handle roughly 1,200 orders a day and are already profitable.
The company’s goal is to convert as many Unnati stores into Pragati stores. Currently, Bengaluru has 26 Unnati and 14 Pragati dark stores, according to the second source. Mint could not independently verify the national count.
Meena noted that sustained losses are difficult to justify in a cost-heavy model. “You can’t keep running a dark store in a locality for 12 months if it’s not profitable. At some point, you have to take a call and shut it down," he said pointing to fixed costs such as rent, electricity and refrigeration that weigh on unit economics.
The Bernstein report noted delivery costs account for about 45% of total expenses, with each delivery costing around ₹50. Staff salaries—including pickers, packers and warehouse logistics workers—make up another 30%.
“To increase the number of orders from the Unnati dark stores, products are sold at a much steeper discount," said the first person quoted above. This leads to a disparity in discounts when a consumer opens the BB Now app.
For example, a 1-kg pack of local tomatoes costs ₹58 in Indiranagar, central Bengaluru, but ₹29 in eastern suburb Whitefield. Egg prices show the opposite trend: a dozen Fresho eggs cost ₹64 in Indiranagar and ₹126 in Whitefield. (Fresho is a BigBasket brand.) Mint observed several such disparities across groceries and staples.
Precision discounts, heavy funding
Both sources said deep discounting encourages higher order volumes. Meena added that discounts in quick commerce are increasingly localized. “Brands now offer discounts at the zip-code or dark-store level. Pan-India discounts are no longer necessary," he said, adding that this approach is becoming standard across the industry with offers, products and pricing varying from one dark store to another.
Funding in the sector has surged over the past 10 months. Zepto raised over $1.4 billion across multiple late-stage rounds and is preparing for a ₹11,000 crore IPO in 2026. Swiggy supported Instamart with a ₹10,000 crore QIP, while Zomato channelled part of its ₹8,500 crore capital raise into expanding Blinkit’s dark store network.
Competition has intensified sharply. Flipkart Minutes expanded from a few hundred to over 500 dark stores in 2025 and plans to reach around 1,000 stores by March or April 2026 across 60+ cities. Amazon’s 10-minute delivery service is scaling rapidly, targeting about 300 micro-fulfilment centres by year-end. JioMart, according to Reliance’s latest investor presentation, operates across 5,000 pin codes and more than 3,000 stores in over 1,000 cities.
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