India leading the way in quick commerce innovation, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

Amazon is taking lessons from India to markets around the world, with quick commerce emerging as one of the clearest examples of ideas developed locally and now being expanded globally, Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said.

Speaking exclusively with CNBC-TV18, Jassy said, “Many of the inventions that have been born here in India, that our team here in India have experimented with and found success with, are being taken to other parts of the world."

"Quick commerce is a great example. We're already now meaningfully experimenting with and expanding quick commerce in the US and in Europe. But it started here in India."

The comments come as Amazon rapidly scales its quick commerce business in India. According to Jassy, adoption of the service is doubling every quarter, underscoring growing consumer demand for faster deliveries.

"We have the broadest selection of products and that get to people the fastest," he said. "We can deliver thousands of items to customers in minutes, tens of thousands of items to people in a few hours, over a million items we can deliver same day, over four million next day."

Jassy said that Prime members who use Amazon's quick commerce offering purchase three times more frequently than Prime members who do not.

The Amazon chief said the company has spent years experimenting with different delivery formats, both in India and globally, before arriving at a quick commerce model that worked for customers while also making economic sense for the business.

During the interview, CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan noted that Indian startups had been "leading the way" in quick commerce and suggested Amazon had been late to the segment.

In response, Jassy said Amazon had tested multiple approaches over the years before finding an equation it was comfortable scaling. "We've been experimenting with lots of different delivery models in India and outside of India for many years, including a form of quick commerce several years ago," he said.

"What we have to do at our scale and with the number of customers we serve, we have to find delivery models that really work for customers and an economic equation for the company."

Jassy said the company's current quick commerce offering, which it started about a year ago, has seen rapid adoption.

"It took us a little bit of time to find the equation we liked, but with quick commerce, which we started about a year ago, the rapid pace of adoption is pretty amazing," he said.

"We have found an equation that both resonates with customers and is economic for us, and so much so that we're expanding it very rapidly."

As part of that expansion, Amazon announced that its Amazon Now quick commerce service will be extended to more than 300 cities across India.

Jassy said the offering's growth is being driven by a combination of fast delivery, broad selection and Amazon's wider Prime ecosystem.

"When you layer on top of that Prime, which is a very unusual subscription and membership programme, where customers get free and fast delivery on the broadest selection of items ... and then the announcement we just made today, which is we're now extending our Amazon Now quick commerce offering to over 300 cities here in India, it's a very powerful equation for customers."

The significance of quick commerce extends beyond India, according to Jassy, who said he expects the model to become a core part of Amazon's operations globally.

"I do expect that quick commerce will be in virtually every marketplace in which we're in," he said.

Jassy's comments come as Amazon deepens its broader commitment to India. Following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the company announced plans to invest $48 billion in India between 2026 and 2030, including an additional $13 billion to expand AI and cloud infrastructure by 2030. The commitment takes Amazon's cumulative planned investments in India between 2010 and 2030 to more than $88 billion. Amazon has also pledged to support more than 3.8 million jobs and enable $80 billion in cumulative ecommerce exports from India.

Jassy added that India would continue to play an important role in generating ideas that can be scaled across Amazon's international business.

"I do expect that we'll continue to find inventions in India that we're able to take to other parts of the world," he said.