Amazon came late India's quick commerce market and is spending 3 billion dollar in next few years to catch up in the intensely competitive race. The online retail giant plans an outlay of 1 billion dollar next year and an additional 2 billion dollar by 2030 for its Amazon Now service. Amazon had previously announced 300 million dollar of spending this year to treble the number of localised warehouses, or 'dark stores', to more than 1000 to make its quick-commerce arm available in about 300 Indian cities, up from 15 now.

Customers are loving it, said chief executive Andy Jassy on a visit to Mumbai earlier this year, adding that Amazon was applying lessons learnt in India to other markets. Armies of scooter-riding gig workers have become a ubiquitous presence across India's traffic-choked cities, ferrying groceries, snacks and an array of other products in 20 minutes or less, transforming middle-class shopping habits nationwide. With delivery windows shrinking from hours to minutes, Indian household expectations have changed dramatically, underpinning the rise of an online instant fulfilment industry that Satish Meena, founder of consumer research firm Datum Intelligence, calls 'Door Dash on steroids'.

According to a recent Deloitte and Google report, the market is now worth 8 billion dollar and is projected to reach 50 billion dollar by 2030, serving about 70 million shoppers. While only commanding a 10 per cent share of the online shopping market in India, quick commerce is increasingly winning business from traditional digital platforms and the millions of kiranas, small mom-and-pop stores that are a defining feature of India's retail landscape. Domestic pioneers Blinkit, Swiggy and Zepto are now being challenged by Amazon and other laggards including Walmart-owned Flipkart and domestic conglomerates Reliance Industries and Tata Group.

All are looking to muscle in on a bruising and expensive battle for market leadership. Flipkart aims to bring its total of dark stores to about 1,500 in 180 cities by the end of the year, compared with about 1,000 now.