Amazon India To Launch 15-Minute Quick Commerce Service In December

Ecommerce giant Amazon is set to pilot its quick commerce delivery service in India by the end of December.

As part of the service, the company will deliver grocery and daily essentials to customers within 15 minutes, Amazon India country manager Samir Kumar said. 

However, he did not disclose the name of the cities where the service will be piloted or the number of dark stores Amazon plans to open.

“… we’re already serving a large segment of customers, especially with our thriving grocery business. One in five items shipped out from Amazon is a grocery item, and one in six is a fresh product… Our focus is now on getting the 15-minute delivery right,” Kumar added.

 When asked if the quick commerce service will be integrated with the company’s grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh, Kumar said it will be a fresh product and likely a derivative of Fresh.

“I think Amazon Fresh is doing quite well. We have seen tremendous growth in Fresh and also scaled up in terms of retail stores and regions,” Kumar said.

This would mark Amazon’s foray into the rapidly-growing quick commerce segment in the country. With the rising popularity of quick deliveries, the Indian ecommerce sector is getting increasingly competitive as companies rush to reduce delivery time to the same day or even a few minutes and hours. 

Over the past few months, the likes of Myntra, Nykaa, Flipkart, among others, have jumped on the quick commerce bandwagon.

While Myntra rolled out a pilot of its quick commerce service M-Now in select Bengaluru pincodes in November, Nykaa piloted a 10-minute delivery service in Mumbai in October.

Zomato’s B2B supply arm Hyperpure also launched a 4-hour delivery service last month. In the same month, PhonePe’s Pincode became the latest entrant in the quick commerce segment.

A number of D2C brands such as Pilgrim and Rare Rabbit are also trying out their own quick commerce models amid a surge in the top lines of the players in the segment, dominated by the likes of Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto.

Blinkit more than doubled its revenue year-on-year (YoY) to INR 1,156 Cr in the September quarter of the financial year 2024-25 (Q2 FY25). Foodtech major Swiggy’s quick commerce business saw its operating revenue surge 135.7% YoY to INR 490 Cr in Q2 FY25.

The latest development also comes at a time when Amazon is constantly expanding its presence and footprint in the country. Earlier today, Amazon India said it would invest $120 Mn under its Smbhav Venture Fund in startups that digitise consumer goods manufacturing.