Instamart tests a physical experiential store in Gurugram

Swiggy’s quick-commerce arm, Instamart, has piloted a physical experiential store in Gurugram, marking an early test of a limited offline format alongside its core dark-store-led delivery model, according to media reports and people familiar with the matter.

The store, located at M3M 65th Avenue, operates as an Instamart-branded experiential outlet and is separate from the company’s dark store network. Customers can walk in to view a curated selection of products and make purchases directly at the store, rather than ordering through the Instamart app. As reported earlier, the outlet carries a narrow assortment of about 100–200 SKUs, significantly smaller than the catalogue available at Instamart dark stores.

Sources said similar experiential formats are being set up in and around residential societies by sellers operating on the Instamart platform. These spaces are not positioned as full-fledged retail stores but as small-format experiential touchpoints with a limited range of products. The emphasis is on categories where customers often prefer to see or inspect items in person before buying, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, pulses, new product launches, and select direct-to-consumer brands.

The initiative is expected to be largely focused on fresh categories. The transaction model at these outlets also differs from Instamart’s standard structure. Payments made at the store are routed directly to sellers, instead of being collected by Swiggy and settled later after commission deductions. Sellers are reportedly experimenting with this format under Instamart’s branding, while leveraging the company’s service support.

Instamart continues to rely on its extensive network of dark stores across multiple cities to enable rapid delivery of groceries and daily essentials, with the experiential outlet operating alongside this existing infrastructure. Swiggy has not officially announced the initiative and has not disclosed whether it plans to scale the format to additional locations.

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