Amazon Pantry, a grocery and household item delivery service from Amazon India, has expanded its services to a total of 27 cities in the last four months. The Pantry service was launched in July last year in Hyderabad, by the end of January 2017, it had expanded to 14 cities. So that’s another 13 cities added in the last three months.

The Amazon Pantry service allows users to fill a box with a maximum capacity of 15 kg, with items from across six categories: cooking essentials, personal hygiene, household supplies and pets, snacks and beverages, haircare and skincare and baby products. It guarantees next day delivery and charges Rs 20 per box as delivery charges. It is free for Amazon prime members.

Currently, Amazon Pantry is available in Ambala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Mohali, Panchkula, Panipat, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Mysuru, Mangalore, Manipal, Kanchipuram, Vijaywada, Pondicherry, Vellore, Warangal. The company’s website says “we will expand to more cities in the coming months.”

Amazon’s KiranaNow, delivers perishable items with two to four hours

Amazon also has another service called Kirana Now (Amazon Now) for grocery delivery. Through KiranaNow, the company has tied up with various Kirana stores as well as grocery retail chains such as Big Bazaar, Spar Market, Hypercity etc, that will deliver the perishable items ordered within two to four hours. Ther service was launched in Bengaluru last year and is currently available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai , Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Amazon plans to invest $500 million in online food retailing

The company has applied for permission to invest $500 million into online food retailing. The e-commerce portal has got a nod from the Department of Industry Policy and Promotion to stock and sell local grocery produce online and awaits a final clearance from the Department of Economic Affairs.

“We are excited by the government’s continued efforts to encourage FDI in India for a stronger food supply chain. We have sought an approval to invest and partner with the Government in achieving this vision,” an Amazon spokesperson told MediaNama in an email.

Competition from established player such as Big Basket

Currently, the space sees tough competition from Big Basket, an online grocer which has 4 million registered users and a presence in 30 cities across the country, . The company has a total funding of $243 million claims to be growing double digit at 10% month on month, as reported Business Standard. The company raised its latest round of funding of $150 million in March this year a consortium led by Dubai-based Abraaj Group. The company has also announced it will invest Rs 50 crore in the next 12 months to further expand into the B2B food services. Through which it provides services to Hotels, Catering and Restaurants, the programme is called HoReCa.