I am often asked about Amazon’s India journey and the inroads ecommerce has made in the country. My swift answer—it’s just Day 1…in fact it’s the early minutes of Day 1. Two reasons: first, ecommerce is still in infancy, accounting for 3-4% of India’s retail consumption. Second, just about 200 million customers in a country of nearly 1.4 billion have explored ecommerce. The opportunities are limitless but a great degree of innovation is needed to build for a diverse country with fragmented needs. These are also uncharted waters that require us to stay nimble and create products and solutions centered on the customer.
Amazon has an innovator’s DNA and that holds us in good stead while building for Bharat. Already, 85% of new customer orders and 65% of all orders come from tier 2 and 3 cities and towns.
India’s most trusted and visited marketplace
Becoming India’s most visited and trusted online marketplace in just nine years is a testament to the numerous firsts that Amazon has introduced both for customers and sellers. Today, we have over 11 lakh (1.1 million) sellers offering the largest selection to crores of customers with same day deliveries across India. In 2022, we expanded same-day delivery within hours to 50 cities from 14 cities. In terms of categories, we are seeing remarkable momentum across Grocery, Smart Phones & Consumer Electronics, Fashion & Beauty, and more. I am excited about the adoption of Prime in India—it continues to bring new customers to Amazon for shopping and entertainment. I believe that Prime Video is a significant benefit for our Prime members and a really important driver for Prime sign-ups. From my perspective, the three important levers for our long-term success are more customers, more Prime sign-ups and more sellers. The good news—we are excelling on all these counts.
2023: The year of opportunities
As we continue to build our core businesses, I also see five exciting opportunities in 2023 to expand the benefits of ecommerce to both customers and sellers—Amazon Business, Amazon Pay, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Pharmacy, and GlowRoad. Amazon Business is India’s largest GST store offering over 16 crore (160 million) products from 650,000 sellers. Its total sales in 2022 grew 2X with a 42% increase in monthly transacting customers. Customers love Amazon Pay as digital payments simplify lives every day. Over 6 crore (60 million) customers and 85 lakh (8.5 million) merchants use Amazon Pay in 350 cities. With Amazon Fresh, we are excited about the opportunity of taking the full selection of groceries beyond the metros and are working on simplifying the customer experience. In 2022, Amazon Fresh was extended to more than 30 Tier 2 and 3 cities from 14 cities earlier. Amazon Pharmacy is now available in 23,000 pin codes across India. In May 2022, we brought GlowRoad into Amazon, to further our focus on digitising lakhs of entrepreneurs across India and help them delight customers with great selection at price points they love. In the last six months, GlowRoad’s monthly transactions have been growing 30% month-on-month and its reseller base has grown 6-fold.
Our business is aligned with India’s priorities
While there are long-term business opportunities, what makes it even more exciting is how Amazon’s business is so closely aligned with India’s priorities. In 2020, we announced three pledges as part of our India commitment and we are well on track to achieve them. We have already digitised 40 lakh (4 million) small businesses, enabled $5 billion in cumulative exports and created more than 11 lakh (1.1 million) direct and indirect jobs in India.
We see umpteen opportunities to continue helping entrepreneurs and small businesses grow their businesses to create national and global brands.
Nine years back we started Amazon.in in India because we believed in the opportunity to serve millions of customers and sellers. Inching closer towards our tenth anniversary, I can assert that Amazon’s belief and commitment to India’s growth story has never been stronger. We will continue to:
- Innovate on behalf of customers and provide the best online shopping experience to millions of customers across India.
- Invest in infrastructure and technology to enable millions of sellers to serve customers better and faster.
- Remain committed to digitise 10 million small businesses, enable $20 billion in exports and create 2 million jobs by 2025.
- Build a sustainable and responsible business for tomorrow
Our focus on serving customers and sellers has brought us this far and will continue to drive us ahead. Customer Obsession is one of our key Leadership Principles and every Amazonian is encouraged to think and innovate on behalf of customers.
Of course, like all healthy businesses, we continually evaluate experiments while remaining focused on long-term innovation and growth. Successful companies never compromise on their strategic long-term bets and remain invested to their transformative mission.
I would like to thank all Amazon employees for putting the customer first in everything they do and for solving complex problems with missionary zeal. Our employees keep us original and inventive while maintaining Amazon’s Day 1 culture.
Ever since our offices have opened, I’ve enjoyed meeting colleagues in-person to get a ring-side view of how different teams think big and execute at scale.
Marathon mindset
I am an avid runner and have participated in several marathons. There are several similarities between running marathons and innovation in business—loads of patience, course correction when required, and being aware of the operating environment. The key in both races is remaining committed to the course.
That’s Amazon in India.
