With 10 Mn Prime subscribers, India turns out to be biggest market for Amazon

US e-tailer behemoth Amazon is now fastest growing marketplace in India and has registered rapid growth in its Amazon Prime subscription service, said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

In a letter to its shareholders, Bezos said that India still remains the company’s most important market outside its home turf.

https://static-cdn.publive.online/entrackr/media/pdf_files/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/wp-content/uploads/2018/04

Talking about its Amazon’s Prime subscription service, which he said now globally commands over 10 crores (100 million), has also grown rapidly in India. As per Entrackr’s estimate based on industry sources, there are about 10 million Amazon Prime users in the country.  

However, Entrackr's query in this regard to Amazon did not elicit a response. We will update the report once we receive a response from the e-tailer.

Majority of subscribers have paid an introductory yearly fee of Rs 499 (now priced at Rs 999) to access free and fast shipping, premium video content, exclusive offers, among other services.

Prime selection in India now includes more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers, and Prime Video is investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and over a dozen new shows in production, added Bezos.

Amazon CEO also highlighted data from analytics firm App Annie to explain that the company’s mobile shopping app was the most downloaded shopping app in India last year.

Till date, Amazon has committed to putting in $5 billion to grow out its business in India. US retailer CEO has indicated that the company will not hesitate to plough in further investments in India.

In India, over the years it has locked in a high-stakes battle with home-grown rival Flipkart, which currently is in advanced discussions to sell a majority stake to another US retailer Walmart, Amazon’s biggest rival in the US.

Meanwhile, research and forecast firm Forrester had outlined that Amazon had narrowed gaps with its rival Flipkart in terms of GMV. While the former had 31.1 per cent market share, the SoftBank-backed company settled with 31.9 per cent market share.

With 56 fulfillment centres across 13 states, Amazon claimed a lead over Flipkart. In November last year, it said to have 44 per cent customer share and 42 per cent order share on an overall market-base level. According to the marketing firm KANTAR IMRB, its traffic is 200 per cent more than rivals.