SUMMARY
This Investment Takes Amazon's Total Capital Infusion In India To $2.1 Bn
US-based ecommerce giant Amazon has poured in about $260 Mn (INR 1,680 Cr) in Amazon Seller Services. This takes the total money invested in the India unit to about $2.1 Bn (INR 13,800 Cr).
As per a recent report, the latest capital infusion came in last month. The fresh infusion is part of the ecommerce giant’s $5 Bn overall commitment to India.
This fund infusion reiterates Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ statement when he said that the ecommerce giant’s Indian arm Amazon is India’s most popular marketplace, indicating the company’s intention to keep fuelling in Indian investment.
This year the company has already introduced its Prime Day in India for the first time. It is an exclusive ecommerce sale event for Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime Day will be held on Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Prime members can avail of exclusives sales and deals for a 30-hour period starting 6 pm on July 10, 2017.
“We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make ecommerce a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem. We are delighted and humbled by the trust from our customers, to lead in India things that matter to our customers in just four years of our business, while continuing to launch innovative India-first initiatives as well as completely new offerings like Prime and Prime video,” an Amazon India spokesperson said.
Despite incurring multimillion dollar losses, the company is bullish about its India expansion. In February 2017, Amazon Development Center announced the launch of two new customer service facilities, in Noida and Coimbatore, respectively. In April 2017, it was also reported that the company had secured a licence from the RBI to operate a prepaid payment instrument (PPI).
In June 2017, it launched its sixth Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Mumbai. With this new launch it now has eight FCs in Maharashtra, with close to 2.5 Mn cubic feet of storage space. In the same month, the company further fuelled $32 Mn (INR 207 Cr) in Amazon Transportation Services, the logistics arm of the company.
Prior to that, it was reported that the company had invested in nine dedicated Fulfilment Centres (FCs) and 33 Delivery Stations exclusively for furniture and large appliances.
Amazon is currently competing head on with its Indian nemesis, homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart, which has recently loaded its war chest with $1.4 Bn funding from Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft. Earlier today it was reported that, post-GST, the company is also looking to expand and increase its last mile delivery in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Gujarat. The company is further looking to increase delivery of higher value goods in Bihar.
(The development was reported by ET)
