Amazon is set to host its ‘Prime Day’ sale in India on July 23 and 24 for its Prime members. But for Amazon, the biggest success is the Prime membership itself, says Akshay Sahi, Director, Prime and Delivery Experience, Amazon India. “Prime has disproved the myth that Indian customers will not pay for convenience. Today, we have millions of paid Prime members in India who continue to shop, stay engaged and entertained all from the comfort and safety of their home,” Sahi tells indianexpress.com over an email interaction.
Amazon states that the two-day period will see over 30,000 new product launches from over 400 top Indian and global brands such as Samsung, Xiaomi, boAt, Intel, Lenovo, Sony, Bajaj, Eureka Forbes, Puma, Adidas, etc. These new products will be made available to Prime members first. There will be 2,000 new product launches from over 120 small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well across categories.
According to Amazon, one of the biggest bestsellers during all key sale events is the Prime membership– which now starts at Rs 1499 yearly. “We have had a fantastic response to Prime since its launch in India, and we have seen new members signing up as we continue to add benefits. Prime membership has continued to be a ‘bestseller’ during all key sale events, and we now see a lot of our members coming from smaller towns,” Sahi added.
Akshay Sahi, Director, Prime and Delivery Experience, Amazon India.
Sahi also noted that Prime membership is no longer limited to just metros or tier 1 cities. Rather there is increasing adoption in smaller cities. He pointed out that “in 2021, more than 70% of new Prime members shop from outside of the top 10 cities.” This list includes places like Ananthnag (Jammu & Kashmir), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Mokokchung (Nagaland), Hoshiapur (Punjab), Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), Gadag (Karnataka) and Kasargod (Kerala), according to Amazon’s data.
Amazon is observing a trend of more customers moving online in tier II and tier III cities and in many of the small towns in India. “Today, 65% of customer orders and over 86% of new customers on Amazon.in are from tier 2 and below geographies. Customers across nearly 100% of India’s serviceable pin codes are shopping with us,” Sahi revealed.
He stressed that the company’s objective is to “reach Bharat – that is to reach every customer in India.” “While the current penetration of e-commerce in India currently stands at around 4%, there has been a significant increase in the last two years of the pandemic,” he added.
According to Sahi, Amazon is seeing more and more customers coming online for their shopping needs, driven by the events of the last two years. He also pointed out that the pandemic period and the rise of ‘work from home’ has meant that there is “high demand in categories such as groceries, work-from-home and online schooling enablers like laptops, smart devices, headphones, furniture, consumer electronics and apparel amongst others.”
When asked whether the price increase for Prime membership — it earlier cost Rs 999 per year– had any negative impact, he said, “We believe Prime still offers a great value to members even at the new price and we continue to invest in making it more valuable for our existing and new members.”
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