Amazon expands grocery delivery services to 110 cities across India
The rapid growth witnessed in the online grocery retail segment in the Indian market is seeing aggressive expansion in the space by e-commerce giants. The latest to announce a large scale expansion is Amazon’s grocery delivery brand - Amazon Pantry. Last week, the company’s executives announced that the company has widened its reach, especially in smaller cities in India, and now has a presence in 110 cities and towns across the market. The service was only available in 40 cities across the country as of November 2018.
“Consumables is a fast growing category for Amazon.in. Amazon Pantry has become popular with customers... We have now added more than 70 cities and towns in the last six-seven months to take the total number of cities covered by Amazon Pantry to 110,” Saurabh Srivastava, Director, Category Management said in a statement. Smaller cities where the service will now be available include places like Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra, Kaithal in Haryana and Belgaum in Karnataka.
According to the company, Amazon Pantry gives its customers access to about 5,000 products from over 500 brands across categories like staples, household supplies, personal care, and others. It also allows customers to choose time slots to schedule order deliveries in select cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.
The Indian online grocery segment has seen significant growth in recent years, with established players like BigBasket and Grofers expanding services rapidly. The allure of potential earnings has also seen biggies like Walmart-owned Flipkart make a play for a portion of the pie. In early May this year, Flipkart announced the launch of its online grocery store - Flipkart Supermart - in Mumbai, the fifth city Supermart is available in after Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. Flipkart had first rolled out Flipkart Supermart in August 2018, after it was acquired by US retailer Walmart. Amazon too has been betting big on its Amazon Pantry venture in India, with industry sources saying that it has committed close to $500 million for the food retail venture.