Andy Jassy’s India visit puts spotlight on Amazon’s quick commerce ambitions targeting 300 cities

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's  is on a India visit as the company plans to expand the quick commerce delivery service to 300 Indian cities, a segment they have been late entrants to. The company sees the country not just as a major market, but as a testing ground for some of its fastest-growing bets.

During his visit, Jassy toured an Amazon Now micro-fulfilment centre, highlighting the company's plans to rapidly expand its quick commerce business. Amazon announced that it will scale Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service, to more than 300 cities across India as it looks to build what it calls the country's largest "delivery in minutes" network. 

The move comes as competition in India's quick commerce market intensifies, with players such as Blinkit, Instamart and Zepto racing to expand their reach and assortment. For Amazon, however, the business has emerged as one of its fastest-growing ventures.

According to the company, Amazon Now orders have doubled every quarter since launch, making it the fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in Amazon India's history. What began as an experiment in India is now being replicated in several international markets. 

The expansion will be supported by a growing network of micro-fulfilment and urban fulfilment centres. Amazon said the infrastructure will enable it to offer tens of thousands of products delivered within minutes or a few hours, more than one million products through same-day delivery, over four million products via next-day delivery, alongside its broader Prime delivery network. 

Jassy also met delivery associates and partners during his visit to the fulfilment centre, where Amazon said hundreds of thousands of customer orders are serviced every day. 

Quick commerce and welfare push

Alongside the expansion plans, Amazon unveiled 'Sammaan', a dedicated programme aimed at improving the welfare of delivery associates who power its ecommerce and quick commerce operations.

The initiative will provide upgraded health and life insurance benefits, education scholarships for delivery associates' children and expanded access to Ashray rest centres, which the company plans to increase to 250 locations this year. A portion of Amazon India's recently announced $300 million investment in operations and employee well-being will be allocated towards the programme. 

"Amazon Now is the fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in Amazon India's history with orders having doubled every quarter since launch. We are seeing a great response from customers, especially Prime members who triple their shopping frequency once they start using Amazon Now," said Samir Kumar, country manager, Amazon India. 

Kumar added that the company has accelerated its expansion plans and will bring ultra-fast deliveries to customers in more than 300 Indian cities. "None of this is possible without our delivery associates who are at the heart of our ecommerce and quick commerce business," he said. "It is our promise that as we grow faster, the people powering that speed grow with us." 

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. As Amazon scales the service nationwide, Jassy's visit signals that India remains central to the company's long-term growth strategy and increasingly influential in shaping products and services that may eventually travel to the rest of the world.