Quick comm surge sends DMart Ready stores reeling

The instant commerce avalanche has caught Avenue Supermarts Ltd's DMart Ready stores off-guard, forcing India's largest listed retailer to shutter many of these pick-up points and shift focus to the home delivery space.

- Varun Sood

Avenue Supermarts rolled out the DMart Ready model following the covid pandemic outbreak in 2020, where customers could order online and collect groceries from a pick-up point. However, the model has struggled, even as the company's long-time chief executive officer (CEO) Neville Noronha prepares to exit.

On Saturday, the company announced, for the first time since it went public in March 2017, that it will offer only home delivery options to consumers in some towns, ending the model of small stores acting as pick-up points.

"In the rapidly evolving dynamics of the grocery e-commerce market, we are seeing significantly more demand for home delivery compared to the pick-up point," and hence, we continue to align our business to that extent. Our home delivery business now far exceeds our pick-up point sales contribution...In several towns, we now only operate home delivery as a delivery channel," said DMart. Alongside, the company said Unilever veteran Anshul Asawa will become CEO on 1 February 2026, succeeding Noronha who built up DMart since joining as CEO in 2007 as India's largest listed organized retailer by revenue.