Instamart store sans delivery partners? Swiggy’s silent offline trial

With Christmas just two days away, the festive mood has already taken over the city. Markets are glowing with lights, Santa Claus figurines pop up every few kilometres, and Christmas trees are impossible to miss. 

Amid all this familiar cheer, something unusual caught my eye – a store with a blue billboard and a name I instantly recognised. What surprised me, however, was the format.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I walked in.

There were no delivery partners waiting outside, and the store looked welcoming enough for regular walk-in customers – nothing like the typical dark-store setup associated with quick commerce. Inside, the space felt like a compact, all-in-one essentials hub.

From groceries, vegetables, and snacks to beauty, wellness, detergents, and more, multiple categories were neatly stacked under one roof. The signage read Instamart – Swiggy’s quick commerce arm. To clear my doubt, I asked the cashier if the place was indeed an Instamart store. It was. And it was the first offline Instamart outlet I had come across.

I picked up a packet of pens for my younger brother and walked out with my purchase in an Instamart-branded bag. It oddly felt like I had just received a quick commerce order – minus the delivery partner. In this case, I was the delivery partner.

Located at M3M 65th Avenue in Gurgaon, the outlet is currently operating as an Instamart-branded experiential store. While the cashier was warm and welcoming, he was hesitant to share details about the nature of the partnership. He did, however, mention that the store was inaugurated on December 11.

The space itself is roughly 400 sq ft. One detail that stood out was an additional room at the back – possibly functioning as a dark store or storage area. Inventory appeared deliberately limited, with roughly four to five units per product.

This made the store feel less like a traditional supermarket and more like an offline product discovery point. It allows consumers to browse, stumble upon their needs, and make impulse decisions – something many of us did regularly before the rise of quick commerce.

Interestingly, walk-in transactions, rather than using the Instamart app, facilitate purchases here. This is despite Instamart offering an expansive online catalogue, ranging from daily essentials to big-ticket items like mobile phones and air purifiers. Physically browsing through a curated selection of about 100–200 SKUs felt refreshingly tactile in an otherwise screen-first shopping ecosystem.

Later, while scanning media reports, I learnt that the transaction structure at these stores differs from Instamart’s standard model. The outlet reportedly routes payments directly to sellers, rather than having Swiggy collect and settle them after commission deductions. Sellers, it seems, are experimenting with this offline format under Instamart’s branding and service support.

From what I observed, pricing was largely on par with online listings. It makes one wonder – could this be Instamart’s early step into offline retail? If this model gains traction, could it potentially provide opportunities for emerging direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to secure physical shelf space through Swiggy's local initiatives?

For now, it’s a small store with a big signal – one that hints at how quick commerce might blur the lines between online convenience and offline discovery in the days to come.