New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- After a year of steroid-fueled dark-store expansion to outpace rivals, Instamart is now staring at leaner carts.

Its orders per dark store per day have fallen 22% over the past nine months, from a peak of 1,260 recorded during the second quarter of 2024-25 to 985 by the first quarter of 2025-26.

Part of the drop could be the ramp-up lag-new stores take months to optimize inventory, layout, and local demand.

But the quick-commerce player's recent averages falling short suggest deeper structural overcapacity, not just early-stage teething troubles, because mature dark stores in similar models tend to stabilize at higher order volumes, warned Nilaya Varma, co-founder at management consulting firm Primus Partners.

Ins...