Amazon adds $300mn to boost India operations, quick commerce

MUMBAI: Amazon is betting a fresh $300 million (over Rs 2,800 crore) on India to widen its operations network and boost its quick commerce business, a space where the firm has been a late entrant, lagging in market share.

The Seattle-based e-commerce company has set a target of more than doubling the footprint of its quick commerce arm, Amazon Now, in the three cities it currently delivers in, besides launching the service in newer cities. A spokesperson declined to share additional details.

For context, Amazon Now records some 3.5 lakh orders per day while leading rival Blinkit delivers more than 25 lakh orders in a day, and Swiggy Instamart around 11-12 lakh orders a day, said Satish Meena, founder at market research firm Datum Intelligence.

Amazon will also upgrade its pan-India operations network covering fulfilment centres, sortation centres and delivery stations to improve delivery speed (for marketplace business) for customers in tier-2 and 3 cities, the company said. “These investments will enable Amazon to serve customers across a wide range of delivery speeds—from minutes to hours to days, based on their needs,” Amazon said in a statement on Thursday.

The investments are part of Amazon’s stated target of deploying more than $35 billion in India by 2030 to drive AI-driven digitisation, export growth and job creation.

The company said it will invest in technology, including AI and machine learning, to make its operations network safer and more efficient. Portions of the capital will also be used to strengthen the safety, health and financial well-being of its workers.

In 2024, Amazon came under scrutiny for workplace safety lapses at its warehouse in NCR. Last year, the company made a similar investment of about $233 million in India.