For real, Amazon Now offers 50% cashback on every Rs 200 order as it fights Blinkit and others
Amazon wants to expand in the quick commerce space, which is currently dominated by Blinkit. While the tech giant may be late to the party, it may have an ace up its sleeves, a cashback offer so good that you may think it's not real. But it is.
When you are in a war, the ability to outspend your competitors can be a decisive advantage. Money, after all, matters plenty. And money is also something that Amazon has plenty of, as it showed just a few days ago when it declared a quarterly profit of over Rs 2,91,000 crores. The company is now spending some of this money on arguably the most aggressive cashback ever seen in quick commerce in India, with Amazon Now giving Rs 100 cashback to consumers if they order groceries worth Rs 200. No ifs, no buts, plain Rs 100 returned as Amazon Pay points if you spend at least Rs 200 on Amazon Now.
In other words, if your order has a value of Rs 200, this is 50 per cent cashback. Although it remains constant — that is Rs 100 — until the order value of Rs 1400. Above that mark, the cashback offered is Rs 200.
Irrespective, the objective of this move seems to be clear: bring Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart and others to their knees by offering to consumers something that other quick commerce companies may find near impossible to match. Of all the giants in India’s quick commerce market, Amazon is the only 800-pound gorilla in terms of its financial size.
Amazon, which has so far failed to get onto India’s quick commerce train, faces odds as it enters the market. The other apps have garnered market share and mindshare. Blinkit and Zepto are almost verbs. But now the tech giant is making some serious moves to capitalise on its strengths. In the same quarterly conference call in which Amazon CEO talked of its financial performance on April 30, he also highlighted how swiftly Amazon was pushing Now in India.
“Amazon Now, which offers delivery in 30 minutes or less on thousands of items, started last year in India, where orders are increasing 25 per cent month over month, with Prime members tripling their shopping frequency once they start using it,” Andy had said.
The push is also evident from the pace at which the company is expanding its network of dark stores, the places from where quick deliveries are facilitated. Although Amazon Now was launched in December 2024, it is in the summer of 2026 that it has started appearing in people’s Amazon app. That is because finally Amazon seems to have enough dark stores.
Reports indicated it now has around 750-800 dark stores compared to around 2200 for Blinkit. While the figure is still almost one third of what the market leader has, Amazon feels confident that at least in major cities and areas it can offer full-fledged service.
That the entire push is super important for the company is evident from the fact that it has been reportedly headed by Amit Agarwal, currently the senior VP for emerging markets for Amazon.
Agarwal, sometimes termed “The Shadow” within Amazon because of his proximity to founder Jeff Bezos, was the man sent to India in 2013 to head and build Amazon India operations. Agarwal did exactly that and turned Amazon India into arguably the largest e-commerce platform in India before relocating back to headquarters in 2022. Now, he has been tasked to build Amazon Now and beat its more nimble competitors like Blinkit and Zepto.
Is Amazon giving unlimited cashback?
One of the most striking aspects of the Amazon cashback is how deep it seems. As experienced by some users in our own India Today Tech team, there seems to be some limit to the cashbacks but it is not apparent or clear. In several cases, we were able to get multiple Rs 100 cashbacks, making the cost of monthly groceries almost half.
In fact, if paired with Amazon-ICICI Card, which separately gives 5 per cent of all money spent as cashback, the current discounts on Amazon Now seem too good to be true.
And probably they are because some users have also seen that after a few days the cashback option was no longer available.
To understand the terms and conditions, as well as the limits and nature of cashbacks on Amazon Now, India Today Tech has reached out to the company. The story will be updated as and when we receive inputs.
So, will Amazon Now with cashbacks succeed in beating the established players? Only time will tell. Amazon might be the 800-pound gorilla, but size doesn’t always lead to a win. For example, Meta has been unable to find a good footing in India’s digital payments market despite its WhatsApp advantage and all the money in the world.
But at the same time, cashbacks are more often than not proven to be advantageous to companies when combined with a top-class product and experience.
They are also a preferred method of late-movers to acquire consumers. In a way they announce to users that the company is now in the game and that they should come and experience the service. Whether the consumers stay or not after the cashback depends on the experience they get. Again, the prime example of that is from the digital payments market where Google Pay beat the early-movers like Paytm and MobiKwik with its aggressive push, and where Amazon Pay has built a relatively small but loyal user base.
When you are in a war, the ability to outspend your competitors can be a decisive advantage. Money, after all, matters plenty. And money is also something that Amazon has plenty of, as it showed just a few days ago when it declared a quarterly profit of over Rs 2,91,000 crores. The company is now spending some of this money on arguably the most aggressive cashback ever seen in quick commerce in India, with Amazon Now giving Rs 100 cashback to consumers if they order groceries worth Rs 200. No ifs, no buts, plain Rs 100 returned as Amazon Pay points if you spend at least Rs 200 on Amazon Now.
In other words, if your order has a value of Rs 200, this is 50 per cent cashback. Although it remains constant — that is Rs 100 — until the order value of Rs 1400. Above that mark, the cashback offered is Rs 200.
Irrespective, the objective of this move seems to be clear: bring Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart and others to their knees by offering to consumers something that other quick commerce companies may find near impossible to match. Of all the giants in India’s quick commerce market, Amazon is the only 800-pound gorilla in terms of its financial size.
Amazon, which has so far failed to get onto India’s quick commerce train, faces odds as it enters the market. The other apps have garnered market share and mindshare. Blinkit and Zepto are almost verbs. But now the tech giant is making some serious moves to capitalise on its strengths. In the same quarterly conference call in which Amazon CEO talked of its financial performance on April 30, he also highlighted how swiftly Amazon was pushing Now in India.
“Amazon Now, which offers delivery in 30 minutes or less on thousands of items, started last year in India, where orders are increasing 25 per cent month over month, with Prime members tripling their shopping frequency once they start using it,” Andy had said.
The push is also evident from the pace at which the company is expanding its network of dark stores, the places from where quick deliveries are facilitated. Although Amazon Now was launched in December 2024, it is in the summer of 2026 that it has started appearing in people’s Amazon app. That is because finally Amazon seems to have enough dark stores.
Reports indicated it now has around 750-800 dark stores compared to around 2200 for Blinkit. While the figure is still almost one third of what the market leader has, Amazon feels confident that at least in major cities and areas it can offer full-fledged service.
That the entire push is super important for the company is evident from the fact that it has been reportedly headed by Amit Agarwal, currently the senior VP for emerging markets for Amazon.
Agarwal, sometimes termed “The Shadow” within Amazon because of his proximity to founder Jeff Bezos, was the man sent to India in 2013 to head and build Amazon India operations. Agarwal did exactly that and turned Amazon India into arguably the largest e-commerce platform in India before relocating back to headquarters in 2022. Now, he has been tasked to build Amazon Now and beat its more nimble competitors like Blinkit and Zepto.
Is Amazon giving unlimited cashback?
One of the most striking aspects of the Amazon cashback is how deep it seems. As experienced by some users in our own India Today Tech team, there seems to be some limit to the cashbacks but it is not apparent or clear. In several cases, we were able to get multiple Rs 100 cashbacks, making the cost of monthly groceries almost half.
In fact, if paired with Amazon-ICICI Card, which separately gives 5 per cent of all money spent as cashback, the current discounts on Amazon Now seem too good to be true.
And probably they are because some users have also seen that after a few days the cashback option was no longer available.
To understand the terms and conditions, as well as the limits and nature of cashbacks on Amazon Now, India Today Tech has reached out to the company. The story will be updated as and when we receive inputs.
So, will Amazon Now with cashbacks succeed in beating the established players? Only time will tell. Amazon might be the 800-pound gorilla, but size doesn’t always lead to a win. For example, Meta has been unable to find a good footing in India’s digital payments market despite its WhatsApp advantage and all the money in the world.
But at the same time, cashbacks are more often than not proven to be advantageous to companies when combined with a top-class product and experience.
They are also a preferred method of late-movers to acquire consumers. In a way they announce to users that the company is now in the game and that they should come and experience the service. Whether the consumers stay or not after the cashback depends on the experience they get. Again, the prime example of that is from the digital payments market where Google Pay beat the early-movers like Paytm and MobiKwik with its aggressive push, and where Amazon Pay has built a relatively small but loyal user base.
