Quick Commerce Stock Planning: How Much to Send Each City

On quick commerce, a brand doesn't have one stock position. It has one per city, sometimes one per warehouse. Send too little and you go out of stock in the cities that sell best. Send too much and slow cities sit on stock until it runs short of shelf life. The fix is a simple, repeatable way to decide how much each city gets.

Why it matters now

The networks are growing quickly. Blinkit ended Q2 FY27 with 2,751 stores, after adding 308 in the quarter, and expects to cross 3,500 by March 2027. Its Delhi-NCR assortment has grown to about 100,000 SKUs, and its parent reported an inventory build-up ahead of the festive season (CIOL). Swiggy's Instamart added 69 dark stores in the same quarter, taking its network to 1,240 (Business Today).

More stores and more cities mean your stock is spread thinner. A brand that planned one national number now needs a number for each city it sells in.

The days-of-cover method

This is a general planning method, not a platform rule. For each city, work out:

1. Average daily sales over the last 2 to 4 weeks, adjusted for any stockout days (a day at zero stock is not a day of zero demand).
2. Lead time: days from a purchase order to stock being received at the platform's warehouse in that city.
3. Review period: how often you can replenish, for example weekly.
4. Safety stock: a few extra days of sales to cover demand spikes and short receipts.
5. Target stock = daily sales × (lead time + review period) + safety stock.
6. Quantity to send = target stock − (stock on hand + stock in transit), rounded up to full cases.

Check the result against shelf life. If the target stock would take longer to sell than the shelf life the warehouse accepts, send less and replenish more often. See our shelf-life and rejections guide.

A worked example

Illustrative numbers for one product in two cities. Replace them with your own sales and lead times.

City B already holds more than its target, so it gets nothing this week, even though it might receive a purchase order. Sending stock there anyway is how slow cities end up with expiring inventory while fast cities run out.

Signals to watch

• Out-of-stock days by city. Lost days hide true demand. See the real cost of stockouts.
• PO fill rate. Short or late deliveries against purchase orders can hurt how platforms treat your brand. See our PO fill rate guide.
• Festive and seasonal spikes. Raise daily sales estimates ahead of known peaks rather than reacting after stock runs out.
• New cities. A new city has no sales history. Start with a small quantity, based on a comparable city, and review weekly.
• Ads. Campaigns lift demand in specific cities. Plan stock before you increase spend there. See our quick commerce ads guide.
• Margin per city. Freight and rejections vary by city. Check that each city earns money. See quick commerce margins and fees.