Amazon expands Pantry to 110 Indian cities as it bets big on grocery category to drive growth in business

New Delhi: E-commerce major Amazon.in on Thursday said it has expanded its ‘Pantry’ service to over 110 cities in the country as it bets big on the grocery category to drive growth in business. Amazon Pantry has been aggressively expanding its presence to smaller cities in the country. The service was available in 40 cities in November last year. “Consumables is a fast-growing category for Amazon.in. Amazon Pantry has become popular with customers… We have now added more than 70 cities and towns in the last six-seven months to take the total number of cities covered by Amazon Pantry to 110,” Amazon India Director Category Management Saurabh Srivastava said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_4501191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Customers even in smaller cities like Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra, Kaithal in Haryana and Belgaum in Karnataka now have access to Amazon Pantry, he added. Through Amazon Pantry, customers get access to about 5,000 products from over 500 brands across categories like staples, household supplies, personal care, and others. In select cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune, it allows customers to choose time slots to schedule order deliveries. Amazon is betting heavily on the grocery segment in India. The company has also committed $500 million to its food retail venture. The grocery segment accounts for a significant portion of the unorganised retail segment in the country. With people becoming comfortable buying even milk and bread online, the e-grocery market is projected to witness strong growth over the next few years in India. Walmart-owned Flipkart, as well as players like Grofers and BigBasket, have also been strengthening their presence in the segment. In March, BigBasket raised about $150 million, while Grofers said it has raised $200 million funding earlier this month.