Amazon expands quick commerce service ‘Now’ to Delhi

Amazon expands quick commerce service ‘Now’ to Delhi

Amazon has quietly rolled out its quick commerce service, Amazon Now, in select parts of Delhi, its second major city launch in less than a month, as it doubles down on the ultra-fast delivery segment dominated by Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart.

Moneycontrol in June reported Amazon’s entry into the space with a soft launch for three Bengaluru pincodes after a six-month pilot that began in December.

With the expansion in Delhi, the US-based e-commerce giant signals it’s done testing the waters and is ready for a larger play in India’s fast-growing $7-billion quick commerce market.

Select Delhi localities can access a 30-minute delivery option for daily essentials via the Amazon app under the “Now” tab.

The launch comes at a time when quick commerce platforms are eating into e-commerce volumes. A recent Bain-Flipkart report said more than two-thirds of online grocery orders and 10 percent of e-retail spending in 2024 was through quick commerce apps.

Amazon’s re-entry into the sub-60-minute race comes amid heightened investor interest and soaring consumer adoption. But it also pits the company against aggressive incumbents in a capital-intensive market.

In March, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal pegged quarterly burn across quick-commerce firms at more than Rs 5,000 crore, with Zepto accounting for more than half of the sum.

Still, platforms are bullish. Chief financial officer of Eternal, which operates Zomato, Akshant Goyal recently told shareholders that the company would prioritise market share over near-term profitability.

Morgan Stanley expects India’s quick commerce TAM to touch $57 billion by 2030, up from its earlier forecast of $42 billion.

For Amazon, which has committed more than Rs 2,000 crore to beef up logistics and operations in India this year, Now could serve as a key lever to gain lost ground.

With Blinkit, Eternal’s quick commerce arm, commanding 46 percent market share, Zepto at 29 percent, and Swiggy Instamart at 25 percent, as per a recent report by Motilal Oswal, Amazon’s late but formidable push could shake up the pecking order — and finally validate the scale of the bet.