The e-commerce giant Amazon is now set to try its luck in India’s food delivery market. Sources claim that the launch of food delivery could be as early as next month.
Amazon’s food delivery service will be offered as a part of either Prime Now or Amazon Fresh. Amazon is a new entry so we can expect offers and discounts. This will also further help the company to boost the Amazon Pay usage in the country.
Amazon has already been testing the service in Bangalore with select restaurant partners for a long time. Previously the service was scheduled to officially launch in India in Diwali last year. But it was then postponed due to some unknown reasons.
A few restaurant owners confirmed to ET that they are working with Prione Business Services, a joint venture between Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India. This will offer them 10-15% commissions for all food orders from Amazon.
India’s food delivery market is very competitive. Zomato acquired Uber’s Eats business in India last month for about $350 million. Now Swiggy and Zomato are two key players operating in most of the Indian cities. Both the companies are still burning cash and running on losses.
Profitability is still a challenge for food delivery startups in India. This is the reason both Zomato and Swiggy are now trying to expand in other verticals.
India’s food delivery market is big and it is expected to cross $9.2 billion in revenues in 2020. It could touch $13 billion by 2024. So, Amazon isn’t late in the segment. It already has a large consumer base in the country to turn into potential customers for its food delivery service.
