Amazon Fresh is Amazon.in’s comprehensive grocery service that enables sellers to offer an extensive selection from farm-fresh fruits and vegetables to household essentials, with convenient two-hour delivery slots. Amazon Fresh sellers offer a comprehensive selection of over 40,000 products, a tenfold increase from just 4,000 in 2023. This includes fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, dairy, packaged foods, frozen items, beauty, baby and personal care, pet supplies, and a growing portfolio of regional products. With 3,000+ regionally loved favorites from Rajdhani atta and Eastern masalas to GRB sweets and Sri Bhagyalaxmi staples – customers can shop for daily needs while savouring their preferred tastes, preferences, and traditions.

“Amazon Fresh has grown 4.5X in reach and 10X in selection in just two years, transforming how families across India shop for groceries online,” said Srikant Sree Ram, Director, Amazon Fresh India. “By expanding to over 270 cities, we are making household essentials and festive favourites available to more households than ever before. This has been possible because of the expansion in Amazon Fresh seller’s network and presence across cities, combined with Amazon’s advanced delivery capabilities, establishing one of India’s largest omnichannel grocery networks. This Amazon Great Indian Festival, our focus is on delivering freshness, savings, and convenience, enabling customers to have everything they need while spending more time celebrating with their loved ones.”

Vinod Nambiar, Managing Director, More Retail Limited (MRL), a seller on Amazon Fresh, said, “We are delighted with the growth on Amazon Fresh. We have converted more than 370 of our More offline stores to also serve Amazon Fresh customers. This has enabled our business on Amazon Fresh to grow at 65% year-on-year in 2024, and it continues to grow significantly.”

Amazon Fresh sellers have established a robust farm-to-doorstep network, partnering directly with more than 13,000 registered farmers across India. Every item delivered to the customers undergoes a rigorous four-step quality process: inspection at local collection points, grading & sorting, temperature-controlled storage, and final quality checks.

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Supermarket chain More Retail has raised approximately ₹400 crore over the past year through a combination of existing investors and leading Indian family offices. The fresh capital is set to bolster the company’s expansion and digital initiatives as it prepares for a much-anticipated Rs. 2,000 crore IPO, slated for calendar year 2026.

The latest fundraise will support the company’s ongoing efforts to expand its store footprint, enhance operational scale, and deepen digital integration, particularly in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, where organized retail remains underpenetrated.

“We will go public—not just to raise money, but to validate our model and reward early investors,” said Vinod Nambiar, Managing Director and CEO, More Retail. The proposed IPO will consist primarily of a fresh issue of shares, with no significant offer-for-sale (OFS) component, ensuring that both Samara Capital (51%) and Amazon (48%) retain their stakes post-listing.

Proceeds from the IPO will also be used to reduce the company’s debt, currently standing at Rs. 500 crore, which includes loans and non-convertible debentures (NCDs). More Retail is targeting an EBITDA profit of Rs. 60 crore in FY26, a marked improvement from the Rs. 65 crore EBITDA loss reported in FY24. The company also anticipates turning PAT-positive within two years.

As part of its aggressive growth strategy, More Retail plans to scale up from 775 stores to over 1,100 by FY26, with a long-term goal of reaching 3,000 stores by 2030. The retailer is also expanding its network of “dark stores”—facilities dedicated exclusively to fulfilling online orders—from 40 to 100 locations over the same period.

“Our model is not built around top-up convenience. Customers shop with us about eight times a month, purchasing full grocery baskets with an average ticket size of ₹850,” Nambiar said, noting that this is nearly double the basket value of most quick commerce platforms.

The company continues to consolidate its geographical presence, focusing on South India, Punjab, Haryana, NCR, and West Bengal, while strategically exiting from Mumbai and Delhi to streamline operations. In FY26, More Retail is set to enter Jharkhand and Odisha, further deepening its presence in India’s fast-growing underserved markets.

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This pivot follows a period of reluctance among legacy players, now grappling with shrinking market share in urban centres. According to NielsenIQ’s January–March 2025 report, ecommerce volumes soared by 40%, while traditional trade dipped 2.2% and modern trade declined 7.7%.

“There is a shift towards ecommerce in metros, with high shopping engagement impacting share of modern trade and kiranas,” the report noted.

Reliance Retail is among the frontrunners of this transformation. The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Dinesh Taluja, confirmed that dark stores are being deployed in “dark pockets” where traditional outlets cannot meet the 30-minute delivery benchmark. “We want to deliver online orders in less than 30 minutes,” he said, noting that volume thresholds and gaps in store coverage are key factors driving the rollout.

More Retail, jointly owned by Amazon and Samara Capital, has already launched 45 dark stores, including several in Delhi, and plans to add 100 more. The company has exited its physical store operations in Delhi and is now eyeing Mumbai for expansion.

“In markets where we already have stores—like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Cochin—we will convert hybrid outlets into dark stores as online demand matures,” said Vinod Nambiar, Managing Director, More Retail. He added that the retailer is also operating standalone dark stores in cities with no physical footprint. More Retail is currently Amazon Fresh’s largest preferred seller in India, strengthening its role as a key backend partner.

Spencer’s Retail is taking a more cautious approach. The company has launched a pilot dark store in Kolkata to test feasibility in areas with limited store-based coverage. CEO Anuj Singh said the initiative supports Spencer’s growing quick commerce business, which currently processes 1.7 lakh orders per month, with plans to scale to three lakh by expanding into cities like Lucknow and Varanasi.

The rapid adoption of dark stores comes amid rising online purchase frequency, growing basket sizes, and dense urban living—factors that are reshaping the grocery delivery landscape. As more Indian households become accustomed to the convenience of on-demand service, dark stores are emerging as a critical component of the urban retail infrastructure.

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Managing Director Vinod Nambiar said that the company currently operates 775 stores across the country and plans to add more than 500 new outlets across 160 cities within the next 18 months. The expansion will further strengthen More Retail’s hybrid model, which integrates physical stores with online grocery delivery services.

The Mumbai-headquartered company operates both supermarkets, which focus on daily essentials and groceries, and hypermarkets, which also stock electronics, apparel, and other non-food items. A key element of its growth strategy is leveraging its hybrid stores—which double as fulfillment centers for Amazon Fresh—a model that Nambiar says delivers better margins than standalone brick-and-mortar formats.

More Retail, once part of the Aditya Birla Group, was acquired in 2019 by a consortium led by Samara Capital and Amazon. The company also offers home delivery through its own app and is now experimenting with slotted deliveries, giving customers the flexibility to choose specific delivery time windows—a contrast to the ultra-fast delivery promises of quick commerce rivals.

The move to go public comes amid a booming grocery and quick commerce landscape in India. Competitors like Zepto, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zomato-owned Blinkit have gained significant traction, with the quick commerce segment alone seeing a 280% surge in sales over the past two years, collectively surpassing $1 billion in revenue in FY24.

While Zepto is also planning an IPO later this year, Zomato and Swiggy are already listed, setting the stage for heightened competition in the fast-evolving grocery retail space.

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