“It’s a large part of western Delhi right now, but it’s a very rapidly evolving network. So, you’ll very soon see it live across Delhi,” Abhinav Singh, vice-president of operations for India and Australia at Amazon, told ET on Monday.
The ecommerce giant will be scaling up the service in these two cities over the next few months before expanding the network to more cities, he said.
ET on June 13 reported about Amazon setting up 10-15 dark stores, or mini warehouses, to support deliveries in Bengaluru and its plans to expand the service in the coming weeks. The wider launch came after multiple internal pilots.
Akshay Sahi, Amazon’s director for Prime, deliveries and returns in India, said within Delhi and Bengaluru, the pilots will turn into full-scale operations very soon.
“Wherever we’ve kind of launched, we’re seeing tremendous responses from Prime members. And hence you will see this expand fairly quickly,” he told ET without disclosing more details.
Amazon’s loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, offers members a range of benefits, including free deliveries, through a paid subscription.
The company’s move into quick commerce comes at a time when the space has seen aggressive growth led by players like Eternal-owned Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart and Zepto, along with new entrants like Tata Digital-backed BigBasket, Flipkart Minutes and Reliance’s JioMart.
Amazon Now plans to have 300 dark stores in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Mumbai by the end of this year, ET had reported.
Its rival in ecommerce, Flipkart, is also aggressively scaling its quick commerce services. By the end of this year, Flipkart Minutes plans to have 800 dark stores across the country.
ET had first reported about Amazon’s plan for quick commerce operations in August of 2024. The Amazon Now service is currently offering groceries, vegetables, beauty and personal care, home care, snacks and beverages and meat, among other items.
Amazon is set to hold its Prime Day event from July 12 to 14. For the company, Prime Day serves as an important mid-year sales boost ahead of the month-long Diwali shopping season. Initially launched as a one-day event, Prime Day has now been extended to three days.
According to the company, it delivered more than 410 million items the same day or the next day during Prime Day last year.
On June 19, Amazon India said that it will invest Rs 2,000 crore this year to expand and upgrade its operations infrastructure, aiming to make ecommerce deliveries “faster and more reliable”. This, when horizontal ecommerce marketplaces are facing stiff competition from 10-minute delivery platforms.
