Food D2C brands now sell through quick commerce: what to watch on the shelf

Key takeaways

• Shashank Mehta, co-founder of The Whole Truth, said in a January 2026 interview that 40 per cent of its sales came from quick commerce.
• Licious said in a release reported by Entrackr that online sales were over 85 per cent of revenue. Licious Flash is its own delivery service, not another app.
• On an app's shelf, stock, price and search order come from the dark store and the app, not from the brand.
• Watch availability by pin code, price against MRP, search position and pack prices. Shelf readings do not show sales by channel.

This post is the timely take. The evergreen how-to is the guide Listed but unavailable: the out-of-stock gap on quick commerce, which covers the topic in full.

What have direct-to-consumer food brands said about quick commerce?

In an interview published by Sajith Pai on 23 January 2026, The Whole Truth's co-founder Shashank Mehta said 40 per cent of the brand's sales came from quick commerce and 25 per cent from its own website. Shashank Mehta put marketplaces, mostly Amazon, at another 25 per cent and offline shops at 10 per cent. That is a founder's statement in an interview, and no filing we have seen breaks the sales down by channel.

The brand is growing fast either way. Entrackr reported on 27 January 2026, from its filings with the Registrar of Companies, that The Whole Truth's revenue from operations rose 232 per cent to 216 crore rupees in FY25.

Licious is further from its direct-to-consumer start. Inc42 reported on 14 November 2025 that Licious's operating revenue rose 16 per cent to 797.2 crore rupees in FY25, and described a brand that sells through its website, quick-commerce apps and its own stores. In a company release reported by Entrackr on 18 October 2025, Licious said online sales were more than 85 per cent of revenue and that Licious Flash served 60 per cent of its online customers, as Entrackr reports it.

Licious Flash is the company's own fast delivery, so that figure describes how Licious delivers its own orders and says nothing about sales through other apps.

Why does selling through quick commerce change what a direct-to-consumer brand must watch?

On its own site a brand sets the price, holds the stock and decides what a shopper sees first. On a quick-commerce app the dark store assigned to the shopper's address holds the stock, the app shows the price, and its search decides the order.

A brand can have stock in its own warehouse and none at the store that serves a customer's street. Our post on what a dark store is explains why.

What should a direct-to-consumer food brand watch on the shelf?

Four readings, for the products that carry most of your sales, at the pin codes that matter. The guide to listed but unavailable covers the most common gap.

• Availability by pin code, since a listing in the app does not mean stock at the store serving a given address.
• Selling price and MRP over time, against the price you set on your own site, and how often the app discounts it.
• Search position for the words shoppers type, such as protein bar or peanut butter, where your product competes with other brands and the app's own labels.
• Pack sizes and price per unit against the packs beside yours, since the app may list a different set of packs from your site.

Does quick commerce replace a direct-to-consumer brand's own website?

Shashank Mehta still put a quarter of The Whole Truth's sales on its own website. The site stays the one shelf where the brand controls price, range and what a shopper sees first, which makes it the reference to compare the apps against.

What can shelf readings not tell a direct-to-consumer brand?

Sales by channel, fill rate and margin. The channel figures above come from a founder and a company release, and Rewalto does not measure them. A reading shows what a shopper could see and pay at one pin code at one time.

Rewalto records availability, selling price, MRP and search position for the products you choose, by pin code and time, with the retailer's page address behind each reading.

Quick answers

Sources

1. Shashank Mehta interview: PMF Convo #21 by Sajith Pai, published 23 January 2026. The Whole Truth's sales split by channel, as its co-founder stated it in the interview. A founder's statement, not a filing.
2. Entrackr: The Whole Truth records 3x revenue growth in FY25, published 27 January 2026. The Whole Truth's FY25 revenue from operations and growth, from its filings with the Registrar of Companies.
3. Inc42: Licious trims FY25 loss by 27%, published 14 November 2025. Licious's FY25 operating revenue and growth, and its channels as Inc42 describes them.
4. Entrackr: Licious reports FY25 revenue and cuts EBITDA losses, published 18 October 2025. From a Licious release: online share of revenue and the share of online customers served by Licious Flash. Company statements.