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Ecommerce giant Amazon has fuelled major investment to compete in the Indian market for the second time in the span of a month. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Amazon has invested about $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) in Amazon Seller Services.
The latest infusion comes right after Amazon infused $250 Mn (INR 1,696 Cr) through a rights issue into the Indian unit in late December last year. The funds are being used to extensively improve warehousing, logistics and marketing services.
This investment, made on January 28, is the largest infusion of capital by Amazon in India. With this, Amazon India has now received over $1 Bn, since CEO Jeff Bezos promised to invest $2 Bn in the Indian Unit in July 2014.
At the same time, local ecommerce rivals are facing the heat from investors to cut losses. Snapdeal reported a loss of INR 1,328 Cr. on revenue of INR 938 Cr. in FY 14-15.
The Indian ecommerce market is expected to grow to $103 Bn by 2020, as per a report by Goldman Sachs. This is attracting global players like Alibaba as well. The Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba plans to bring Indian ecommerce biggies under its umbrella. After partnering with Paytm and investing in Snapdeal, Alibaba is now looking out to invest in Indian ecommerce major Flipkart.
On the other hand, Walmart Stores Inc invested $53 Mn (INR 360 Cr) in December 2015, in its Indian unit. The company plans to open over 50 new stores in India. This comes at a time when it plans to close nearly 270 stores globally.
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