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Amazon Now to Hit 300+ Cities: Quick Commerce War Spreads Beyond India’s Metros

Amazon is bringing its fast-delivery service to more than 300 Indian cities. The service is called Amazon Now. It is a “quick commerce” app. Quick commerce means your order comes in minutes, not in days. Amazon’s boss, CEO Andy Jassy, shared this plan on Wednesday. He was visiting a delivery centre in Mumbai. (A CEO is the top boss of a company.) If the plan works, Amazon Now will cover more cities than any other fast-delivery app in India. That means a bigger fight with Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart.

The big change is about location. Most quick commerce apps mainly serve big cities. But Amazon now wants to reach small towns too.

What Andy Jassy said in Mumbai

Jassy visited an Amazon Now “micro-fulfilment centre” in Mumbai. That is a small local warehouse. It keeps popular items close by so they can reach you in minutes. Jassy said Amazon Now is the company’s fastest-growing online shopping business in India.

“It’s our fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in India, and we’re expanding to 300+ cities as part of our plan to build the country’s largest delivery-in-minutes network,” Jassy wrote on X. (Ecommerce just means buying and selling things online.) He also said Amazon is using lessons from India in the US and other countries.

Amazon Now started in September 2025. It already serves more than 50 million customers. It runs in over 15 cities. These include Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Kochi. Amazon says its orders double every three months. It also says Prime members shop three times more often after they start using the service. (Prime is Amazon’s paid membership plan.)

Key facts

DetailFigure
Target cities for Amazon Now300+
Current cities servedOver 15
Customers reached now50 million+
Launch dateSeptember 2025
Order growthDoubling every quarter
Estimated Amazon dark storesAround 500
Estimated daily orders (Amazon Now)450,000–500,000

How Amazon compares with rivals

Amazon is still much smaller than the top apps. To pack orders fast, these apps use “dark stores.” A dark store is a mini-warehouse. Shoppers cannot walk in. It only packs online orders. Amazon has about 500 dark stores, says a research firm called Datum Intelligence. Amazon Now handles about 450,000 to 500,000 orders each day.

The leaders are far ahead. Blinkit is owned by a company called Eternal. It had 2,243 dark stores at the end of March. It works in more than 200 cities. Swiggy Instamart had 1,143 dark stores in 129 cities. Zepto had 1,139 stores in 66 cities. Per day, Blinkit handled about 3 million orders in the March quarter. Zepto handled about 2.3 million. Instamart handled about 1.25 million. (A “quarter” is a three-month period.)

PlayerDark storesCitiesDaily orders
Blinkit2,243200+~3 million
Zepto1,13966~2.3 million
Swiggy Instamart1,143129~1.25 million
Amazon Now~50015+~450,000–500,000

So why does Amazon think it can catch up? It is counting on two things. First, its huge delivery network. Second, its large group of Prime members. Eternal told its investors something interesting. Its stores in the top eight cities already cover 80–90% of the pin codes they can serve. (A pin code is the postal number for an area, like 110001.) This means new growth must come from smaller towns. And that is exactly where Amazon is going.

What Amazon will stock and the worker push

Amazon said it will build more micro-fulfilment and urban fulfilment centres. (Both are local warehouses that pack orders for fast delivery.) These will keep groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, personal care items, beauty products, clothes and small appliances. All of this can then be delivered in minutes.

Amazon also started a programme called Sammaan. It helps and supports delivery workers. The company said it will grow its Ashray rest centres to 250 places this year. (These are spots where delivery workers can rest.) Samir Kumar is the country manager for Amazon India. (A country manager runs the company’s business in one country.) He said Prime members shop three times more after they start using Amazon Now. “We have further accelerated our expansion and will offer ultra-fast deliveries to customers in over 300 cities in India,” he said.

FAQ

What is Amazon Now?

Amazon Now is Amazon’s quick commerce service in India. It delivers groceries and daily items in minutes. The items come from small local warehouses. It started in September 2025.

Is Amazon Now bigger than Blinkit?

No. Blinkit is still the leader. It does about 3 million orders a day. Amazon Now does about 450,000 to 500,000 orders a day. But Amazon plans to grow fast into smaller cities.

Which cities will get Amazon Now next?

Amazon plans to reach over 300 cities. Many of these are tier-2 and tier-3 towns. (Tier-2 and tier-3 just mean smaller and mid-sized cities, not the big metros.) Rivals have little presence in these towns.

Why it matters (especially for India and founders)

This is a big moment for India’s quick commerce story. The big cities are getting crowded. So the next fight is in smaller towns. For founders, Amazon’s move teaches a lesson. (Founders are people who start companies.) Owning a strong delivery network and loyal customers can matter more than being first. For shoppers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, more competition is good news. It usually brings faster delivery and lower prices.

It also asks a tough question. Can 10-minute delivery make a profit outside big cities? No one really knows yet. The money side there is still untested. Amazon’s push is part of its bigger India plan. That plan includes its large AI and cloud investment in Mumbai, which was announced during the same Jassy visit.

The main point is simple. India’s quick commerce war is no longer just a big-city fight. Amazon wants to cover the most cities, even if it is not the biggest by orders yet. The next year will show what wins: wide reach or high volume.

Source: Financial Express — Amazon takes quick-commerce war to 300 cities

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