SUMMARY
Customers From Over 350 Cities Across India Signed Up For Amazon Prime In 2017
Amazon’s popular membership programme, Amazon Prime has grown to encompass over 11 Mn Prime eligible products across categories in India this year, compared to the 2 Mn products it offered in 2016. The programme also saw customers from over 350 cities across the country signing up in 2017.
As per an official release, the top in-demand products from Prime exclusive launches this year were iPhone 6 Soft Gold, LG G6, Honor 8 Pro, OnePlus 5T and Sanyo Smart TV. Products such as Canon EOS 1300D, Redmi 4, TCL 32inch TV, Seagate 1TB also remained popular with the customers.
Also, the company celebrated its first Prime Day in India on 11 July which saw 34 brands including, Steve Madden, Puma, Honor, LG, Lego launching exclusive new products on Amazon.in. The Amazon Fire TV Stick with voice remote also saw a good response on Prime Day.
Further, Prime members purchasing Echo devices got an exclusive preview of Prime Music and voice shopping on millions of products. Amazon Prime is also expected to launch Prime Music in the country with millions of songs and playlists included with the membership at no additional cost.
A Quick Look At Amazon And Amazon Prime In India
Amazon had launched its Prime membership programme in India in July 2016. Prior to that, it had brought its dedicated e-reader Amazon Kindle in 2013 to the country followed by its subsequent variants.
In December 2016, it brought its Prime Video service in India. The Prime Video is an additional offering for Amazon’s Prime subscribers, including existing ones and allows users exclusive access to movies, Amazon’s original series as well as premium content from across the globe.
Amazon has been pretty aggressive with new launches in the Indian market, besides fuelling existing business. Some of the other services that the ecommerce behemoth has brought to India in the last two years include its grocery delivery app Amazon Now, Amazon Pantry and its e-wallet, Amazon Pay.
In April this year, it also launched its video streaming device, Amazon Fire TV Stick, to rival Google Chromecast. Recently, in October, the company’s AI enabled virtual assistant Alexa-powered wireless voice-controlled speaker, Echo, entered the Indian market. As part of the launch, Amazon’s Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and Alexa Voice Service (AVS) also made their debut in the country. These services are aimed at enabling developers around the world to build voice experiences for Alexa customers. At the time of its announcement, Amazon also revealed plans of launching Prime Music in India soon.
Last month it also announced plans to bring its audiobook and entertainment service, Audible to India early next year. Amazon is also gearing up to launch a private smartphone brand, Tenor, in January 2018. The development comes just over a month after Flipkart announced its entry into the country’s smartphone market with Billion Capture+. Meanwhile Flipkart is also reportedly considering to relaunch its loyalty programme ‘Flipkart First’ to take on Amazon Prime.
In a recent interaction with ET Now, Amazon India Head Amit Agarwal had stated that the company was not looking to clock profits at the moment and was instead focussed on investing in new products and technologies to widen its customer base in India. With the increasing gamut of products under the Amazon Prime membership program, it is clear Amazon is hell bent on gaining a stronger foothold in the country.
