'Amazon will continue investing heavily in India'

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Nov 2, 2016

Amazon will continue investing heavily in India, the chief of the firm's local operations said, dispelling concerns of slower spending by the US e-commerce company. The news comes after Amazon chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky said last week that - while the India investments were starting to show results - they had hit margins, contributing to lower-than-expected results in the third quarter.
 

“Not at all,” Amazon’s India chief Amit Agarwal said in an interview to Mint when asked whether Amazon would slow down investments in India.

Amazon, which initially said it would invest $2 billion in India, had said in June that it would invest an additional $3 billion in the country.

That investment is on track, Agarwal said, adding that the company is “excited about the momentum that we see in India”.
 
“India is very early in its e-commerce trajectory. Amazon is very early in its e-commerce trajectory in India. To transform how India buys is going to take a long time; it will take a lot of investment and... for many years. This is just the beginning.” he added.
 
Amazon is betting big on its Prime service in India and expects the loyalty programme to dominate sales in the coming months.
 
“Prime continued to be the top seller in all of October, not just for wave one (of the Great Indian Festival). Prime membership continues to be a top seller and it is going to be so going forward every month. My belief is that Prime membership will be the top seller every month based on the trends that we are seeing,” said Agarwal.