Amazon to invest aggressively in India

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Dec 22, 2016

 Amazon will invest aggressively in India next year to emerge as the market leader in the world’s fastest growing e-commerce markets and is not thinking about profitability, according to its country head in India, Amit Agarwal.

"Amazon has become the leader in all the things that matter to customers and will invest heavily in three areas in India- technology, infrastructure and innovation in the coming year,”  Agarwal told the Economic Times.

“It’s too early to think of profitability from the Indian market as the e-commerce major in any market, globally, takes at least a seven-year- horizon before thinking about profitability," he added.

Amazon has increased the number of sellers on its marketplace by 160% in 2016 to 140,000 while the product selection grew by 140% to 95 million items. The company is now adding 180,000 products every day.

"Consumables and fashion would probably settle down as our largest categories," Agarwal stated.

Amazon has been involved in a fierce battle with India’s leading retailer to take pole position and has been infusing money in its India unit to achieve the same. The Seattle based company’s recently invested Rs 2010 crores in its India unit. The aggressive spending by Amazon is costing the American giant in terms of losses, however, it is unperturbed as it has started showing results. Its flagship unit in India Amazon Seller Services has more than doubled its revenues in the year ended March, leading rival Flipkart in terms of revenues. Amazon Seller Services' turnover for the last fiscal rose 116% to Rs 2,217 crore while Flipkart Internet's sales increased 153% to Rs 1,952 crore during the same period.