Amazon Launches Food Delivery Service In India

Amazon.com Inc. has launched its online food delivery operations in select pin codes of Bengaluru, months after Uber Technologies Inc. quit the hyper-competitive market in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The Seattle-based e-commerce firm’s foray, named Amazon Food, comes at a time when the country’s largest food-delivery players, Swiggy and Zomato, are struggling. Order volumes have plunged during the national lockdown, which was imposed to curb spreading of the Covid-19 pandemic. The two companies have already laid off more than 1,500 employees to cut costs and streamline operations.

“Free and contactless delivery, hygiene-certified restaurants,” Amazon’s message on the app read.

“We’re launching Amazon Food in select Bangalore pin codes and allow customers to order from handpicked local restaurants and cloud kitchens that pass our high hygiene certification bar," a spokesperson for Amazon spokesperson said in an email. “We’re adhering to the highest standards of safety to ensure our customers remain safe while having a delightful experience.”

When BloombergQuint checked, Amazon India’s app showed the service was live in parts of localities of Bellandur, Haralur, Marathahalli and Whitefield. Some of the cloud kitchens and restaurants Amazon has partnered with include Box8, FreshMenu, Paradise Biryani, Faasos and Mad Over Donuts.

Amazon joins India’s food delivery market which according to Redseer is expected to quadruple to $2.5 billion by 2021, and has already seen at least half-a-dozen ventures fold up in the last few years. Until last year, it was a four-cornered fight. But Ola pivoted from a restaurant aggregator to a cloud kitchen platform last year, and Uber Eats sold its India business to Zomato.

To be sure, Amazon has been prepping the launch its food delivery business in India for a while. BloombergQuint had reported earlier this year that Amazon was doing a pilot among its employees prior to the roll-out of the food delivery service.