Amazon joins quick commerce race, to begin 15-minute deliveries in India

Samir Kumar, who joined Amazon in 1999, was a part of the original team that planned and launched Amazon India in 2013.

E-commerce major Amazon is set to finally join Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, Flipkart Minutes, BigBasket and others to compete in India’s $6-billion quick commerce market, the company’s rapid delivery arm, Samir Kumar, Country Manager, Amazon India told reporters on December 10.

The pilots will begin in Bengaluru later this month. While reports had earlier suggested Amazon will call its quick commerce offering as Tez, the company is yet to decide on a name.

“We will be starting a pilot to give our customers a choice to get their everyday essentials in 15 min or less,” Kumar said while speaking at the company’s flagship event, Smbhav happening in Delhi.

“Our strategy has always focused on 'selection, value and convenience' and our vision is to build a large profitable business in India...while we focus on implementing our strategy to offer the largest selection at fastest speeds and greatest value to customers in every single pin-code across the country,” Kumar added.

This will be the first major launch under Kumar’s tenure who took over from former head Manish Tiwary only two months ago. According to several media reports, Amazon's quick commerce foray has been in the works for several months and finally fructified at a time when customer preferences are changing in India.

An increasing number of customers are now moving away from 1 and 2 day deliveries and purchasing from quick commerce platforms instead. Quick commerce companies are eating into the share of e-commerce majors such as Flipkart and Amazon which has forced the two giants to launch their own rapid delivery offerings, analysts said.

Traditional e-commerce companies will look to build on their existing customer base.

"We already have millions of customers across India including Prime Members who trust us and will look forward to this convenience," Kumar said.