📚 New to this topic? Read our full guide: Biggest Companies in India.
Amazon Now to Hit 300+ Cities: Quick Commerce War Spreads Beyond India’s Metros
Amazon is taking its quick commerce push to more than 300 Indian cities. Quick commerce means delivery in minutes, not days. Amazon’s service is called Amazon Now. CEO Andy Jassy announced the plan during a visit to a Mumbai delivery centre on Wednesday. If it works, Amazon Now would have the widest reach of any fast-delivery app in India. It sets up a bigger fight with Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart.
The big shift here is geography. Most quick commerce apps mainly serve big cities. Amazon now wants to go deep into smaller towns too.
What Andy Jassy said in Mumbai
Jassy visited an Amazon Now micro-fulfilment centre in Mumbai. A micro-fulfilment centre is a small local warehouse that stores popular items so they can be delivered in minutes. He called Amazon Now the company’s fastest-growing online retail 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. He added that lessons from India are now being used in the US and other markets.
Amazon Now launched in September 2025. It already reaches more than 50 million customers across over 15 cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Kochi. The company says orders have doubled every quarter since launch. It also says Prime members triple how often they shop after they start using the service. Prime is Amazon’s paid membership plan.
Key facts
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Target cities for Amazon Now | 300+ |
| Current cities served | Over 15 |
| Customers reached now | 50 million+ |
| Launch date | September 2025 |
| Order growth | Doubling every quarter |
| Estimated Amazon dark stores | Around 500 |
| Estimated daily orders (Amazon Now) | 450,000–500,000 |
How Amazon compares with rivals
Amazon is still much smaller than the leaders. A dark store is a mini-warehouse closed to walk-in shoppers; it exists only to pack online orders fast. Amazon has around 500 dark stores, according to Datum Intelligence estimates. Its daily orders are pegged at about 450,000 to 500,000.
The market leaders run far ahead. Blinkit, owned by Eternal, ran 2,243 dark stores at the end of March and is in more than 200 cities. Swiggy Instamart had 1,143 dark stores across 129 cities. Zepto operated 1,139 stores across 66 cities. On daily volume, Blinkit handled roughly 3 million orders a day in the March quarter, Zepto about 2.3 million, and Instamart around 1.25 million.
| Player | Dark stores | Cities | Daily orders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blinkit | 2,243 | 200+ | ~3 million |
| Zepto | 1,139 | 66 | ~2.3 million |
| Swiggy Instamart | 1,143 | 129 | ~1.25 million |
| Amazon Now | ~500 | 15+ | ~450,000–500,000 |
Why does Amazon think it can catch up? It is betting on its huge delivery network and its big Prime member base. Eternal has told investors that stores in the top eight cities already cover 80-90% of serviceable pin codes. That means future growth has to come from smaller towns, which is exactly where Amazon is heading.
What Amazon will stock and the worker push
Amazon said it will grow its network of micro-fulfilment and urban fulfilment centres. These will hold groceries, fresh produce, personal care, beauty products, fashion items and small appliances for delivery within minutes.
The company also launched Sammaan, a welfare programme for delivery workers. It said it will expand its Ashray rest centres to 250 locations this year. Samir Kumar, country manager for Amazon India, said Prime members triple their shopping once 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 from small local warehouses. It launched in September 2025.
Is Amazon Now bigger than Blinkit?
No. Blinkit is still the leader with about 3 million orders a day. Amazon Now does an estimated 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, including many tier-2 and tier-3 towns where rivals have a limited presence.
Why it matters (especially for India and founders)
This is a turning point for India’s quick commerce story. The metro market is getting crowded, so the next battle is in smaller towns. For founders, Amazon’s move shows that owning a deep delivery network and a loyal customer base can matter more than being first. For shoppers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, more competition usually means faster delivery and lower prices.
It also tests a hard question: can 10-minute delivery make money outside big cities? The economics there are largely untested. Amazon’s push has links to its wider India bet, including its big AI and cloud investment in Mumbai announced during the same Jassy visit.
The takeaway: India’s quick commerce war is no longer just a metro fight. Amazon wants the widest map, even if it is not yet the biggest by orders. The next year will show whether reach or volume wins.
Source: Financial Express — Amazon takes quick-commerce war to 300 cities