NEW DELHI: E-commerce’s goliath Amazon is set in transforming India’s micro small and medium-sized businesses into a digital platform. To successfully do so, Amazon is hiring more people on board and getting more sellers.
“We’ve talked about India many times, but a lot of focus on building that out… what’s great about a place – all geographies with a place like India is we’re really focused on digitising the Indian sellers. A lot of micro, small and medium-sized businesses there,” as per David Fildes, Amazon’s Director Investor Relations, in an investor call.
Fildes added, “we launched new features there to help support the digitisation efforts with some of those brands and just a lot of work, great work being done by that team. They have some goals there around getting more sellers on board and hiring many more people as well. So a lot of focus there.”
The digitisation initiative comes in handy at a time when Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart went head to head for the battle of market leadership in the country. It doesn’t end there. A new player in town in the personification of billionaire Mukesh Ambani is also vying for the title.
Amazon and some of the most recognisable e-commerce companies are currently trying to augment the public’s shifting attitude in favor of online selling. These companies are aggressively investing in expanding infrastructures, programs, solutions, and the like to address both consumer and seller dilemmas. Overall, e-commerce companies aim to provide the best commercial experience ever in one of the world’s busiest countries.
Recently, Amazon announced that it’d soon be constructing more Fulfilment Centres all over the 15 states of India. If completed, this will boost Amazon’s warehousing capacity, catering to incoming seller registrants more than ever. Amazon also invested a fresh capital of Rs 2,310 crore in its India units, Amazon Seller Services. Amazon Seller Services also received another 2,208 crores earlier this year. Now, Amazon plans to help its micro, small, and medium businesses to shift digitally. It’s part of Amazon’s $1 billion investment pledge.
Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, in an investor call, said, “…what you also see are investments in new countries. Obviously, India is the biggest one, but also, to a lesser extent, the Middle East, Brazil, Turkey, and Australia are recent additions. So there’s always an element of expansion going on there,”
India is the biggest receiver of Amazon’s Prime, a membership program that offers services like shipping, music, video, etc. Since June, Amazon’s net sales rose to 40$, and its net income increased to $5.2 billion.
Goldman Sachs reported that India’s e-commerce industry would skyrocket at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27%, effectively reaching up to USD 99 billion by 2024. Goldman Sachs hypothesised that grocer, fashion, apparel are the likely key drivers of this e-commerce boost.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, is not all business. He spent more than USD 4 billion on COVID-19 related costs to keep his employees secure and safer.
