Amazon: Looks at expanding services in India

16 June 2022, Mumbai:

Having completed nine years of operations in India, the local arm of the US ecommerce major Amazon plans to increase local stores in India and gain 500 more e-commerce users as customers, says Manish Tiwary, Country Manager-India Consumer Business, Amazon India.

The Seattle-headquartered etailer plans to onboard more physical stores on its India platform to increase the number of goods that can be delivered quickly to customers. Amazon India currently has 1.1 million sellers on its platform. Its total user base is more than 100 million.

Last month, Amazon launched Smart Commerce, an initiative that will help offline stores set up their own digital storefronts, in addition to selling on its India marketplace. This is similar to what Canada-based Shopify does. Amazon will enable these stores to sell on its marketplace and other platforms.

Amazon’s focus on social commerce is in line with its recent acquisition of Glowroad which has introduced a zero-commission policy since then.

According to Tiwary, the emphasis on social commerce and physical stores was an outcome of the realisation that it would need different models to cater to a market like India. It is also taking a bet on videos (Prime Video, MiniTV), voice and influencer-led commerce.

In total, the e-commerce firm has pumped in more than $6.5 billion in India and will continue to invest here across segments to grow its core commerce business like grocery.

In the grocery segment, Amazon is competing with many players to get mind space from customers. Tiwary said the company would continue to offer the two-hour delivery service through Amazon Fresh.