NEW DELHI: Amazon is making a bigger push into India’s booming quick-commerce market. During CEO Andy Jassy’s visit to the country, the company announced plans to expand Amazon Now to more than 300 cities as it looks to strengthen its position against rivals Blinkit, Zepto and Flipkart Minutes.
Amazon already has a strong presence in India’s e-commerce market. But with quick commerce growing rapidly across the country, the company now wants a bigger share of it. During a recent visit to India, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced plans to significantly expand the company’s quick commerce business.
As part of this push, Amazon is expanding Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service, to more than 300 cities across India. The company says the move will help it build what it describes as the country’s largest ‘delivery in minutes’ network.
The announcement comes at a time when competition in India’s quick commerce market is heating up. Players such as Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Flipkart Minutes are rapidly expanding beyond major metropolitan cities in a bid to attract the next wave of online shoppers.
In an official blog post, Amazon said its quick commerce service has become the fastest-growing e-commerce business in the company’s India operations, with orders doubling every quarter since launch. The company added that Prime members who begin using Amazon Now typically triple their shopping frequency.
Amazon Now is currently available to more than 50 million customers across over 15 metro and non-metro cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Kochi. With the planned expansion, Amazon intends to scale up its network of micro-fulfilment centres and urban fulfilment facilities, enabling products to be stored closer to customers and delivered within minutes or a few hours.
