Amazon Now orders grow 25% month-on-month across 500 dark stores. Prime subscriptions change the unit economics, letting Amazon subsidise delivery while Blinkit and Zepto chase per-order profit.
Alpha Score of 60 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, poor value, strong quality, moderate sentiment.
Amazon has entered India's quick commerce race two years after Flipkart and years behind Blinkit and Zepto. The company's March-quarter earnings call contained a detail that reframes the catch-up effort: Amazon Now orders are growing 25% month-on-month, CEO Andy Jassy said. The service now clocks 450,000–500,000 orders a day across roughly 500 dark stores. Amazon is also investing Rs 2,800 crore to expand the dark store network and improve associate safety.
On the surface, those numbers look small next to Blinkit's 3 million daily orders and 2,200 micro-warehouses. The simple read is that Amazon is far behind and scrambling. The better market read is that Amazon is running a fundamentally different playbook, one built on Prime subscriptions and a willingness to accept location constraints that competitors avoid.
A Blinkit executive walking through Mumbai's Colaba market spotted an Amazon Now dark store in a spot the rival had wanted but could not secure. The store sits in a densely populated pocket of South Mumbai, near landmarks like Kala Ghoda and the BSE, exactly where quick commerce apps target affluent professionals. The executive said Blinkit did not open a dark store there because it could not find a site with enough parking. Blinkit needs space for 50–60 bikes at once. Amazon's Colaba store has only seven to eight parking spots.
"That's how aggressive it is," the Blinkit executive said. "Only time will tell how smart of a move this is, at least it gets things going."
The anecdote captures Amazon's current strategy: move fast, accept tighter operational constraints, and rely on execution to solve logistics problems later. It is a deliberate departure from the infrastructure-heavy approach of incumbents.
Amazon is prioritising footprint density over operational perfection. The Colaba store proves the company will take suboptimal real estate to claim a high-value catchment. Competitors like Blinkit and Zepto have been more cautious, waiting for sites that meet their parking and space requirements. Amazon's willingness to compromise could let it open stores faster, especially in dense urban cores where large parking lots are scarce.
Amazon's quiet weapon is Prime. The subscription service gives Amazon a recurring revenue base, higher customer retention, and a lower cost to acquire repeat buyers. For quick commerce, the math shifts: Prime members already pay a subscription fee, so Amazon can absorb thinner margins on delivery without chasing per-order profitability from day one.
Simple read: Prime is a loyalty program that encourages shoppers to use Amazon more. Better read: Prime changes the unit economics of quick commerce because delivery is a sunk cost for subscribers. Amazon can cross-sell higher-margin items, push Prime Video, Amazon Music, and other services into the same household, and treat quick commerce as a traffic driver for the entire ecosystem. Competitors such as Blinkit and Zepto must extract profit from each grocery order. Amazon can afford to subsidise delivery to gain share.
Jassy's comment that orders are growing 25% month-on-month suggests the strategy is gaining traction. If that trajectory continues, Amazon will close the gap faster than the current store count suggests.
Amazon is putting capital behind the ambition. The Rs 2,800 crore investment – disclosed separately as a commitment to associate well-being and network expansion – underpins the growth. The company has not specified how many more dark stores it will open, the spending rate implies aggressive additions.
| Metric | Amazon Now | Blinkit |
|---|---|---|
| Daily orders | 450k–500k | ~3 million |
| Dark stores | ~500 | ~2,200 |
| Growth rate | 25% MoM | Established base |
| Structural lever | Prime subscription | Standalone quick commerce |
The table highlights the scale gap and the different starting points. Amazon is growing from a smaller base at a high rate. Blinkit already serves a mature network. The question is whether Amazon can sustain a 25% month-on-month growth rate as it adds stores in less dense areas.
Blinkit and Zepto cannot ignore Amazon's entry. If Amazon uses Prime to compress delivery margins, the entire industry's profitability timeline shifts. Blinkit has already turned profitable at the unit level, it still relies on order density to cover dark store rent and delivery labour. A price war launched by an incumbent with a subscription wallet is a different threat from a startup burning cash.
For investors tracking India's consumer internet space, Amazon's quick commerce push is a long-term structural shift, not a quarterly earnings catalyst. The numbers to watch are: order growth trajectory, dark store count per month, and Prime subscriber growth in India. If Amazon hits 1 million daily orders within the next two quarters, the narrative flips from "late entrant" to "legitimate threat."
For broader market context on how consumption patterns are evolving in India, see our stock market analysis and the piece on How 5 Family Units Could Reshape India's Consumption and Fiscal Math.
Amazon's calm about being late is justified if Prime can lower customer acquisition costs enough to offset the scale disadvantage. The next key data point will be the company's Q2 2025 earnings call, when Jassy will likely update Amazon Now's order growth and store count. Until then, the market is watching Blinkit and Zepto for defensive moves.
Amazon is not racing to catch up on store count. It is racing to lock in Prime subscribers before the quick commerce battle becomes a commodity price war.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.