Amazon Now's quick commerce push: Tier II cities, 1,000 MFCs, and a catch-up game

Amazon ramps up its quick commerce play with a 100-city expansion and 1,000 MFCs, intensifying competition with Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, and Flipkart Minutes

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As competition intensifies in India’s quick commerce segment, Amazon is scaling up its own offering, Amazon Now, with an aggressive push into tier II markets. The company plans to expand the service to 100 cities across India, backed by a network of over 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres (MFCs) to support faster deliveries.

The expansion will see Amazon Now enter cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Meerut, Mysuru, Panipat, Kochi, Amritsar, Mangaluru and Visakhapatnam, while deepening its presence in existing metro markets like Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.

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Amazon Now offers a curated range of daily essentials, including groceries, personal care, fashion and beauty products, small appliances, baby products, pet supplies, and healthcare supplements. The push is part of Amazon’s broader investment of over Rs 2,800 crore (around $300 million) aimed at strengthening its operations network, alongside improving associate safety, health, and financial wellbeing.

“We have accelerated our expansion plans and will scale Amazon Now to 100 cities, powered by more than 1,000 micro-fulfilment centres. This will also enable over 16,000 farmers to leverage our technology and operations to directly reach customers,” said Harsh Goyal, Vice President–Everyday Essentials, Amazon India.

According to Goyal, this expansion will also help more than 16,000 farmers to leverage Amazon’s technology and operations to take their produce directly to customers through sellers on Amazon Now.

Though late to the quick commerce race, Amazon’s move comes amid intensifying competition in the space, where players such as Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, Zepto, and Flipkart’s Minutes have already built significant scale. Blinkit has taken the lead, seizing a market share of about 50%.

Flipkart’s Minutes, Amazon’s rival in the e-commerce sector, for instance, operates around 800 dark stores and is reportedly looking to expand this to 1,200 by 2026, with plans for a standalone app.

With scale, speed and supply chains becoming key differentiators, Amazon’s late but aggressive push into quick commerce signals that the race is far from settled.