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Amazon said on Tuesday it is trialling an express commerce service in India that will see the US tech giant deliver groceries and other items to customers in the world’s most populous country in 15 minutes or less.
The American company is the sixth largest participant in the Indian express trade market, which currently has annual sales of more than $6 billion. Express commerce in India is currently dominated by Zomato-owned Nexus-backed BlinkIt, Swiggy and Zepto, which largely operate in nearly two dozen cities.
Amazon said it will initially launch the pilot in Bengaluru.
“Our strategy has always focused on ‘Choice, Value and Convenience’ and our vision is to build a profitable large business in India,” Sameer Kumar, Amazon India’s new regional director, said in a statement.
“So, as we focus on executing our strategy to deliver the largest assortment at the fastest speed and highest value to customers in every pin code across the country, we are excited to begin a pilot program to give our customers the option to get their daily essentials in 15 minutes or less.”
Although the rapid commerce model – delivering items to customers within 10 to 15 minutes – has not worked in most parts of the world, it is finding increasing success in India, where a host of retailers and internet companies, from food delivery giant Swiggy to… Online cosmetics platform Nykaa is preparing its supply chain ecosystems to accommodate faster deliveries.
Myntra, India’s largest fashion e-commerce company, piloted its express commerce offerings in Bengaluru last week.
India is the only market where Amazon is testing Express Commerce offerings. It’s also one of its biggest moves into the world’s second-largest internet market.
Amazon entered the Indian market a decade ago, investing more than $7.5 billion to build and scale its e-commerce offering. But 10 years later, the Indian e-commerce market has barely made a dent in the overall $1.1 trillion retail market, growing at less than 15% annually.
Some industry insiders, as well as analysts, believe that Express Commerce may be the future of e-commerce in India. Flipkart, Amazon’s main competitor in India, launched its express commerce offers in August.
Many have also criticized Amazon for being too slow in India. Amazon has been unable to capitalize on white space across express commerce, second-tier markets and categories like apparel, Rahul Malhotra, an analyst at Bernstein, told TechCrunch in a recent interview.
This is breaking news. More to follow.
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