Quick commerce is here to stay, according to FirstCry managing director and chief executive Supam Maheshwari. He added, however, that the economics will increasingly favour large retailers with established stores, logistics networks, and private labels over niche platforms building from scratch.
“There will be fatalities in this space,” Maheshwari told Mint, referring to specialty quick-commerce platforms. He explained that these platforms face a difficult path to profitability due to high logistics, inventory, working capital, and customer-acquisition costs.
FirstCry (Brainbees Solutions Limited) has developed its own logistics arm, RocketBees, along with FirstCry Qwik, which provides two-to-three-hour delivery in select pin codes. RocketBees, launched in mid-2025, now operates across 72 cities and improved its delivery turnaround by around 20% between launch and the first quarter of FY27. Qwik, launched in December 2025, has expanded to 12 cities and delivered about 125,000 shipments in June, Maheshwari said.
Rather than tracking Qwik’s expansion by city count, FirstCry is targeting about 10% of its online orders through the service over the next few quarters. The model will leverage the company’s existing store network where possible, with dedicated dark stores in select catchments.
Qwik will operate alongside FirstCry’s standard e-commerce offering, providing faster delivery for a narrower local assortment, while the broader catalogue remains available through same-day and next-day delivery.
This strategy comes as FirstCry tries to regain operating leverage after a period of margin pressure. Consolidated revenue rose 13% year-on-year to ₹2,106 crore in Q1FY27, even as adjusted Ebitda declined to ₹89.3 crore from ₹92.7 crore a year earlier, squeezing the margin to 4.2% from 5%. While India multi-channel revenue grew 17.7%, its adjusted Ebitda margin shrank to 5.7% from 8.6%.
Maheshwari’s remarks also coincide with sustained investor interest in vertical quick-commerce platforms focused on the mother-and-baby and kids categories. Kids-focused OZi secured $6.2 million from RTP Global in March, while babycare platform Peeko raised over $7 million in a round led by Chiratae Ventures earlier this month.
Quick commerce edge
Maheshwari said FirstCry isn’t aiming to replicate the standard quick-commerce model. Niche platforms, he noted, lack the scale needed to absorb logistics and supply-chain costs, leaving them more exposed to inventory and working-capital demands. Their reliance on third-party brands also restricts their ability to protect margins.
“If you put all of this together, it just becomes unsustainable in my view,” Maheshwari said, arguing that niche-category quick commerce could take many years and hundreds of millions of dollars to become profitable. In contrast, FirstCry generates over half its gross merchandise value (GMV) from in-house brands and operates a national logistics network, creating what he described as a different economic equation.
FirstCry has more than two million stock keeping units (SKUs), and Qwik can offer products beyond emergency purchases such as diapers or formula, including partywear, ethnicwear, strollers, walkers and tricycles, he added.
Maheshwari also said he does not expect delivery speed to cannibalize FirstCry’s core business. “A lot of mothers are planned shoppers. When they are buying fashion, nursery products or other categories, they do research, they look at the brand and quality. They don’t necessarily need the product in 10 minutes.”
That distinction is reflected in FirstCry’s approach to physical stores. The company has spent the past two quarters changing its offline assortment strategy, moving from an e-commerce-led approach focused on product width to a retail model focused more heavily on depth. Maheshwari said this allows the company to secure better costs, offer better prices, and improve footfall and conversion.
FirstCry plans to add around 90-100 stores in FY27, and Maheshwari expects an even larger number in FY28. The expansion is not being driven by Qwik, he said, although stores in cities where Qwik operates can also be used to fulfill quick-commerce orders.
The offline push is aimed at increasing wallet share in markets where FirstCry doesn’t have stores yet. Maheshwari said 36% of GMV from the top 50 cities in FY26 came from customers who transacted both online and offline.
“Assortment depth, availability, trust, and sustained price-value have been, and will remain, the true differentiation levers. For categories such as medicines and baby products, credibility and compliance outweigh saved minutes, apart from urgent purchases,” Devangshu Dutta, founder of consultancy Third Eyesight, told Mint last month.
Private labels and margins
Home brands accounted for more than 58% of GMV in FY26, up from 37% in FY20, and Maheshwari expects that trajectory to continue. FirstCry’s portfolio includes Babyhug, BabyOasis, CuteWalk and Pine Kids, alongside third-party brands.
“The trust is first with FirstCry as a retail platform and then with the home brands. That is why our curation is so important. We are offering a superior experience through the home brands we have been building,” Maheshwari said. Rather than viewing this curation simply as a lever for higher gross margins, he considers it a key competitive advantage spanning FirstCry’s physical stores, e-commerce platform, and quick-commerce service.
FirstCry’s consolidated gross margin fell to 36.5% in Q1FY27 from 38.5% a year earlier, while India multi-channel adjusted Ebitda margin fell to 5.7%. Maheshwari attributed the pressure primarily to aggressive competition in diapers and higher raw-material costs, which affected FirstCry’s manufacturing business.
He expects the raw-material impact to be fully reflected in pricing by Q3, while diapers could take another two to four quarters to normalise. “This is only a 15% category for us,” he said, noting that the remaining 85% of the portfolio—fashion, baby gear, nursery and toys—continues to perform strongly. He said he expects margins to recover through FY27 and that the company’s longer-term margin trajectory remains upward.
Brainbees Solutions stock was trading around ₹186 at 1 pm on Friday, down around 1.35% on the day. The stock is down more than 72% since it was listed in August 2024.