Amazon India expects sales volumes from this year’s Great Indian Festival to go ‘much higher’ than what it sold a year ago.
Gopal Pillai, vice-president, Seller Services, Amazon India, told The Hindu : “All indicators for this season look fantastic for us. In the last 12 weeks, we have not seen any deceleration in our sales and, in fact, our growth trajectory for India is quite intact.”
As a preparatory step, the e-tailer has on boarded 1.2 lakh new sellers on its platform, taking its seller population in the country to 5 lakh, from 3.8 lakh a year ago.
The company has also engaged additional delivery staff of 90,000 across the country. “We have reworked the delivery channels and the speed is going to be significantly better this year,” he said.
The e-commerce major will kick off a month-long online shopping extravaganza starting midnight of September 28-29, and the first wave of deals will be available until October 4. Amazon said it experienced an overwhelming response from the seller community. With new sellers onboarded, the marketplace has over 200 million items. The company has also expanded its warehousing facility to 26 million cubic feet. According to Mr. Pillai, Amazon’s India experience has been good so far. “Our loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, has received a 2x growth with millions of buyers coming to us.”
Rising sales volume
Commenting on the value the platform had been creating for the seller community, Mr. Gopal said in the last 12 months, sales volumes for 23,000 sellers had doubled, 18,000 sellers reported threefold growth, while 14,000 sellers posted fivefold growth after selling on the platform.
“As a result, our seller profile has also seen a dramatic change. This year, we already saw 15,000 millionaires and 3,500 crorepatis being born on Amazon India,” he added.
Amazon has introduced three different seller cohorts such as Amazon Karigar, Amazon Saheli and Launchpad. Over 2,400 weavers and artisans as well as State co-operative bodies, who directly impact 8 lakh lives, will showcase over 55,000 products.
Saheli ‘empowers’ over 1 lakh women from underserved and underprivileged communities, while Launchpad offers opportunity to over 800 start-ups to showcase 8 lakh products.
Amazon’s Global Selling Programme has generated a cumulative Gross Merchandise Sales of $1 billion in the last four years, which is expected to grow to $5 billion by 2023, the e-commerce major said.
