Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he left India impressed that the company’s Amazon Now quick-commerce model could be both a major growth engine locally and a template for other markets after witnessing a delivery completed in under four minutes.
“It’s a magical customer experience,” Jassy told CNBC-TV18 Managing Editor Shereen Bhan after touring one of Amazon’s micro-fulfilment centres. “I made an order that was delivered to me in a little less than 4 minutes,” he added, describing how he watched the operation in action.
Amazon Now, which began in Bengaluru in December 2024 and was initially developed under the codename Tez, has since rolled out to 15 Indian cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. The company is now preparing a far larger expansion, planning to extend the service to more than 300 cities across India.
Jassy said the company spent years experimenting with different delivery formats before settling on a model that balances speed, selection and economics. “It took us a little bit of time to find the equation we liked,” he said, describing a mix of Amazon’s wide product catalogue, ultra-fast delivery and integration with Prime membership benefits.
The announcement comes alongside a deepening of Amazon’s commitments to India. After a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amazon disclosed plans to invest $48 billion in India between 2026 and 2030, including an additional $13 billion earmarked for AI and cloud infrastructure by 2030. Those plans raise Amazon’s cumulative planned investment in India from 2010 to 2030 to more than $88 billion. The company also pledged to support over 3.8 million jobs and help enable $80 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports from India.
India’s quick-commerce sector is already competitive, led by players such as Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and Blinkit. Industry research suggests there is still ample room for growth: a Google–Deloitte report from April 2026 projects the market could reach $50 billion by 2030, with the number of quick-commerce shoppers doubling to about 70 million and roughly 30% of demand coming from non-metro or tier-2 cities.
Jassy said Amazon Now’s adoption is accelerating: the service, launched about a year ago, is reportedly seeing adoption double every quarter. He also noted that Prime members who use quick commerce tend to shop three times more frequently than Prime members who do not use the service.
For Amazon, the implications go beyond India. Jassy pointed out that many innovations originating in India are being trialed and expanded elsewhere, and that quick commerce is already being experimented with in the U.S. and Europe. “But it started here in India,” he said, suggesting the format could become a standard element of Amazon’s operations across multiple markets.
As Amazon scales its micro-fulfilment footprint and integrates the service with its Prime ecosystem, the company appears to be placing a strategic bet that ultra-fast delivery will drive deeper customer engagement and long-term growth in India and beyond.