Amazon Fresh logged 40% annual growth during the 2025 festive season
Tier 2 & 3 cities saw 60% higher demand, led by fruits, vegetables, and wellness items
GST rate cuts and the “GSTBachatUtsav” campaign boosted category-wide demand
Amazon Fresh has reported 40% year-on-year growth during the Great Indian Festival 2025. This demand was majorly driven by tier 2 and 3 cities, which recorded 60% growth as demand for fruits and vegetables stood at 50%, said Srikant Sree Ram, director of Amazon Fresh India.
The demand extended beyond daily essentials, with emerging categories such as beauty essentials growing by 50%, hair care by 60%, and sports nutrition by 40%. Health-conscious segments like seeds and dry fruits also saw a 50% uptick, while leading brands including Maggi (50%), Cadbury (20%), etc., drove strong overall sales.
“Amazon’s approach to grocery delivery has evolved to match the pace of modern life. While quick commerce fulfills immediate needs, our research shows customers value a balanced approach to convenience, quality, and selection,” Sree Ram told Outlook Business.
Geographically, the company is seeing distinct regional variations in festive shopping patterns across India this year. In Uttar Pradesh, demand for fresh and wholesome foods surged—up 77% in Kanpur, 46% in Lucknow, 45% in Meerut, and 57% in Varanasi—driven by growing interest in nutrition and premium staples.
In Rajasthan, customers based in Jaipur and Jodhpur leaned toward protein-rich and gifting assortments, while Punjab saw a 49% rise in Ludhiana, led by fresh produce and snack hampers. Southern cities like Chennai, Coimbatore, and Madurai favored wellness-led festive baskets, and Hyderabad grew 37% with strong demand for fresh foods and hampers.
While regional preferences shaped festive buying trends, favourable GST revisions amplified demand across a wider set of categories. “This has made the festive season more exciting for lakhs of sellers and crores of customers on the millions of items available on Amazon,” he said.
The company has launched ‘GSTBachatUtsav’ features badges on products that reflect applicable GST savings, making it easier for customers to identify and shop for these offers.
“GST reductions have driven strong demand across categories. On Amazon, coffee culture continued to expand nationally, outpacing tea with 30% YoY growth, led by a 60% rise in tier 2 cities. Baby skincare grew 25% YoY, Oral care grew 30%, following the GST rate reduction from 18% to 5%...,” he added.
Besides GST benefits, technology also played a pivotal role through its supply chain process – from sourcing produce through thousands of registered farmers to quality checks at collection centers.
“At the sourcing stage, we have built an ecosystem with a team of qualified agronomists offering agri-tech expertise to our farmer partners. This helps improve farm yield and product quality through machine learning and computer vision-based algorithms that simplify supply chain processes and identify defects in fruits and vegetables, reducing wastage,” Sree Ram explained.
He further stated that the company is utilising shelf-monitoring cameras that feed into ML (machine learning) models to sport quality checks. “Through this technology-driven process, we ensure consumers receive the best quality fruits, vegetables, unmatched savings, and a wide grocery selection delivered within their preferred time slots,” he added.
Currently, Amazon Fresh is present in over 270 cities in India. The company claimed to have scaled its reach over four-fold in past two years. It offers over 40,000 products—a ten-fold increase from just 4,000 items in 2023.
