Amazon CEO Andy Jassy visits India as quick-commerce battle heats up

The company plans to expand Amazon Now to more than 300 cities as rivals Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart and Flipkart race to build larger fulfilment networks

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy is on his first India visit since succeeding founder Jeff Bezos in 2021. 

During his India visit, the company said on Wednesday that it plans to expand Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service, to more than 300 cities across India. This comes as it seeks to build what it describes as the country's largest "delivery in minutes" network. 

Amazon said it is on track to build India’s largest ‘delivery in minutes’ network, which has seen orders double every quarter since launch. 

Jassy’s tour signals the company's long-term commitment to a market where it has built a significant presence across ecommerce, logistics, Cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and entertainment. 

 

His visit comes at a time when the ecommerce giant is going through its most-contested period yet, as homegrown quick-commerce rivals Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Walmart-owned Flipkart aggressively expand their dark-store networks to capture a larger share of the country's fast-growing online grocery market. 

Jassy, who was in Mumbai on Wednesday, is expected to meet senior government officials and industry leaders and could also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Jassy visited one of the Amazon Now micro-fulfilment centres that powers the company’s ultra-fast delivery promise. He spent time at the centre, meeting delivery associates and partners who serve hundreds of thousands of customers each day. 

During his visit, Jassy joined executives from leading Indian companies to discuss how AI can move from experiments to real impact and how companies in India can build for customers here and around the world. 

Some industry leaders he met included Sunil D'Souza, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Tata Consumer Products; Baskar Subramanian, cofounder and CEO, Amagi; V. Vaidyanathan, MD and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank and Anchit Nayar, CEO, beauty and ecommerce, Nykaa. 

Jassy added AI is the most transformational technology he has seen in his lifetime and that India will be where some of its most important applications are built. 

“Amazon Now is the fastest-growing ecommerce business unit in Amazon India’s history with orders having doubled every quarter since launch,” said Samir Kumar, country manager, Amazon India. 

He added, “We are seeing a great response from customers, especially Prime members, who triple their shopping frequency once they start using Amazon Now.” 

Amazon said what started as an experiment in India is now being expanded to several countries across the globe. 

Amazon has made a $35-billion investment commitment through 2030 for India, earmarked for AI data centres as well as ecommerce. 

It also set a target to raise cumulative exports by Indian sellers to $80 billion by 2030. 

Amazon also introduced ‘Sammaan’ — a dedicated programme focused on the welfare of tens of thousands of delivery associates powering its ecommerce and quick commerce businesses. 

A portion of Amazon India's recently announced $300 million investment in operations and associate well-being will go towards strengthening and scaling this programme. 

“It is our promise that as we grow faster, the people powering that speed grow with us, with better health and wellness, education support for their families, and a safer working environment every day,” said Kumar. 

The company said Amazon Now’s orders have doubled every quarter since launch. 

Amazon will scale up its specialised fulfilment infrastructure to offer the largest selection of products to customers across the country – when they need them – tens of thousands of products delivered in minutes or a few hours. 

Amazon plans to scale up its network of micro and urban fulfilment centres to house an expanded selection of daily essentials ranging from groceries, personal care, fashion and beauty products to small appliances, home and kitchen products and more. 

Amazon Now is already available to over 50 million customers in more than 15 metro and non-metro cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Kochi among others. 

The Indian grocery market is projected to grow to nearly $992 billion by 2030, up from $658 billion, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants. 

Less than two years after launching Flipkart Minutes, Flipkart has expanded its quick-commerce network to 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres across more than 130 cities and 8,000 pincodes, as it steps up competition with Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart. 

The company said order volumes have grown fivefold over the past year and that FlipKart plans to expand to about 1,500 centres in the coming months. 

The growth has been driven by rising adoption among Gen Z shoppers and rapid expansion in smaller markets, with Flipkart saying its business in Tier-II and Tier-III cities has grown 42-fold from a year earlier.

 

Jefferies estimates suggest the gap between the market leader and challengers remains significant: Blinkit processed 917 million orders in FY26 through 2,243 dark stores across more than 200 cities, compared with Zepto's 640 million orders from 1,139 dark stores in 66 cities and Instamart's 412 million orders from 1,143 dark stores across 129 cities. 

During his visit, Jassy joined executives from leading Indian companies to discuss how AI can move from experiments to real impact and how companies in India can build for customers here and around the world. Some of the industry leaders he met included Sunil D'Souza, MD and CEO, Tata Consumer Products, Baskar Subramanian, Co-Founder and CEO, Amagi, V. Vaidyanathan, MD and CEO, IDFC FIRST Bank, Anchit Nayar, CEO, beauty and e-commerce, Nykaa. Other executives included Dr. Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD, Tata Power; Zia Mody, Founder and Managing Partner, AZB & Partners; Vibha Padalkar, MD and CEO, HDFC Life, Anil Rai Gupta, Chairman & MD, Havells India.

 

Jassy said AI is the most transformational technology he has seen in his lifetime and that India will be where some of its most important applications are built. He pointed to a deep engineering talent base and the pace of digital adoption as reasons the country is positioned not just as a consumer of AI but as a builder and innovator.

 

Following a visit to an Amazon Now micro-fulfilment centre in Mumbai and a roundtable with top Indian executives,  Jassy met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to discuss Amazon’s commitment to the state. The conversation focused on how Amazon’s investments in AI, cloud infrastructure, ecommerce and logistics are helping businesses in Maharashtra grow, reach new customers and compete globally.