Year 2020 saw the largest number of new customers on Amazon.in

Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India states that customers from over 99.3% pin codes shopped on Amazon.in with more than 3X more customers signing up for Prime during the festive season as compared to a normal business day, with 3 out of 5 signups coming from beyond the metros from cities & towns like Agra, Bhopal, Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Vijayawada and Kottayam.

IBT: How have sales on Amazon India trended in the post-COVID period as opposed to the previous years?

Manish Tiwary: Sellers on Amazon.in witnessed their biggest Great Indian Festival (GIF) bringing happiness to millions of customers across all corners of the country. Close to 600 sellers saw more than INR 1 crore in sales while over 6,500 sellers have clocked sales worth INR 1MM (10 lakh) in SMB pre-festive lead up and during the Great Indian Festival. With over 1.2 lakh sellers receiving orders, we are humbled by how sellers, brands and ecosystem partners nationwide have come together during these unprecedented times to spread joy across the country.

With 90% of new customers coming from smaller cities, this year saw the largest number of new customers shopping for the first time on Amazon.in. Customers from over 99.3% pin codes shopped on Amazon.in, with more than 3X more customers signing up for Prime during the festive season as compared to a normal business day, with 3 out of 5 signups coming from beyond the metros from cities & towns like Agra, Bhopal, Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Vijayawada and Kottayam. Prime members from 98.3% pin codes of India shopped during the Festive season.

For the first time, customers experienced GIF in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. Customers managed their budget through affordability programs fueling consumption across the country. Credit amount of INR 2,700 crore was disbursed through partners.

IBT: Which are the categories doing relatively better during the lockdowns and after, and what insights do they reveal on consumer behaviour during this period? What were your expectations from consumer facing sectors in the current festive season? Which key products are likely to consumer demand?

Manish Tiwary: Customers shopped for everything big and small this festive season. Top sold categories included smartphones, large appliances, fashion, consumer electronics, home & kitchen; registering the biggest sales ever for devices.

50% of all premium smartphones being bought on Amazon.in were 5G ready. Over 1.5 million customers bought a phone from Amazon for the first time. Over 40% customer growth from tier-II and tier-III cities. Customers purchased more iPhones in 29 days of the Great Indian Festival than all of last year. Customers upgraded their work & study from home setup – 10 PC devices (laptops and desktops), 9 routers and 4 printers bought every minute during the festive season on Amazon.in. New photography trends emerged this year with drone cameras, mirrorless cameras and vlogging cameras gaining popularity from top brands. 120 audio products were purchased every minute.

Gaming continues to enthrall customers – more than 2 computer accessories bought every minute. Gaming accessories, graphic tablets, playstation, Xbox, nintendos and virtual reality brand Oculus see stellar growth. Customers get more environment conscious with 2 out of 3 refrigerators bought being energy efficient. 99% of all TVs sold this season were smart TVs. One in two TVs sold during GIF were Alexa-enabled Televisions.

Customers shopped across Men’s Casual wear tops and shoes, Women Ethnic wear, Kids Apparel, Winter wear, Athleisure, Fashion Jewelry, Smartwatches and Travel luggage. In Apparel, home essentials like t-shirts, innerwear, sleepwear shorts, Women kurta, Sarees, Men’s ethnic, Smartwatches, Travel luggage, Women Sandals, Jewellery were the popular products during the festive period. Customers purchased Gold coins, Gold pendants, Earrings, Rings, Necklaces and more this festive season. Customers showed their love for Designer Boutique. RIVER – a newly launched, affordable, multi-designer brand created in partnership with some of India’s most celebrated designers – JJ Valaya, Ashish Soni, Suneet Varma & Manish Arora popular this GIF.

IBT: How did the lockdown affect your supply chain and operations, and what approach did you follow to normalise them in collaboration with your partners on the platform? Which product categories, if any, continue to be impacted by disruptions and why?

Manish Tiwary: We are humbled how sellers, brands and ecosystem partners nationwide have come together during these unprecedented times to spread joy across the country. We continue to help our sellers and partners reach millions of customers across the country and support them in accelerating their business. At the same time, our aim is to help our customers find everything they need during the festive season and deliver it safely to them.

In order to ensure safe and reliable deliveries, and serve customer demand during the Great Indian Festival, Amazon has ramped up its delivery infrastructure adding close to 200 delivery stations and added tens of thousands of delivery partners to its network. Amazon.in expanded its fulfilment footprint with more than 60 fulfilment centres in 15 states offering a storage capacity of over 32 million cubic feet to serve customers in the farthest parts of the country. Further, we have announced 5 new sort centres and expansion of 8 existing sort centres across the country to strengthen fulfilment capacity. In addition to this, we have created more than 100,000 seasonal job opportunities ahead of the festive season across our operations network in the country.

IBT: With people stepping out of their homes post-lockdown, do you see some normalisation of customer demand from your platform? What is your projection on expected revenues in the coming years and what are your plans in terms of expansion in India?

Manish Tiwary: One thing we’ve learnt from the COVID-19 crisis is how important a role Amazon and e-commerce can play with enabling policies – for our customers as much as for small businesses & economy. We take this responsibility seriously, and we’re proud of the work our teams are doing to help customers through this difficult time. At this moment in time, our focus is to ensure our customers get all that they need safely and that we are able to strongly help our small business partners with their business revival to manage through these challenging times. Customers recognize that ecommerce is the safest way for them to get what they need, and sellers know that e-commerce is the best way for them to serve their customers as their footfalls have been impacted.

We are seeing a 50% increase in new seller registrations vs pre-COVID-19. The sellers on Amazon.in have been receiving orders for consumer electronics, study from home essentials, kitchen & home appliances, smart devices, laptops, mobile phones, phone accessories, personal grooming products, apparel and more besides groceries and other essential products.

IBT: What key marketing strategies and offers have you planned to woo customers and boost sales during this time?

Manish Tiwary: Customers saw offers on cards by 6 top banks & issuers (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Citibank, Kotak Bank and SBI Cards) and 1 payments network (RuPay). Through these 7 partners, more than 35 crore Credit and Debit cardholders in India got access to offers. More than half the customers who shopped in GIF, used a Credit or Debit Card from the respective partner banks to avail a 10% discount. This festive season Amazon made shopping affordable by offering EMI options across 24 banks. Credit amount of over INR 2,700 crore was disbursed by partners with over 1,40,000 New to Credit Customers.

3 out of every 4 EMIs were no cost EMI.  Every 2 out of 5 Shoppers had access to credit through products like Amazon Pay Later, Debit Card EMI, Credit Cared EMI and NBFC EMI. 3 out of 4 EMI shoppers came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 2 out of 10 mobile phones, 4 out of 10 ACs, 3 out of 10 Laptops, 3 out of 10 Refrigerators, 2 out of 10 TVs and 3 out of 10 Washing Machines were bought by customers on EMI.

IBT: How is Amazon India looking to be a facilitator for Indian MSMEs to help them expand their market reach domestically and across the world? What has been the progress so far, and which are the key sectors where   you see potential from the Indian MSME sector for growth via your platform?

Manish Tiwary: This festive season, lakhs of Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) are offering a unique selection to customers helping them rebuild and accelerate their business in tough times. Over 4 crore products from Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs); products from over 20,000 local shops across 100 cities will be available during the Great Indian Festival.

Starting with pre-GIF opening for sellers, close to 1.2 lakh small & medium sellers from 6,387 pin codes received an order. 1 out of 2 sellers see their biggest day of sales this Great Indian Festival. Close to 74,000 sellers who received an order were from smaller cities such as Chikkaballapur in Karnataka, Virudhunagar in Tamil Nadu, Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, Moga in Punjab, Ri-Bhoi in Meghalaya, Malda in West Bengal and Navsari in Gujarat.

Close to 600 sellers saw more than INR 1 crore in sales and nearly 6,500 sellers see more than INR 10 lakhs in sales. Top selling crafts under Amazon Karigar were Blockprint, Sambalpuri and Rajasthani Kathputli. Most loved products from Launchpad sellers include Asgard’s 3 Layer Protective Face Mask , Dr VAKU Pulse Oximeter, Desidiya Diwali Lights & LED Curtain Lights , Control D Nebulizer. Popular products by Saheli sellers were dry fruits from Spicy Carte and Jute planter baskets from PartyStuff. Local shops from 1,000 pin codes received orders this GIF. Most bought products from local shops were Organic India Ginger Tulsi Turmeric Tea, Tata Sky HD Connection and Cooking Oil.

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FMCG baron Manish Tiwary is the VP- Category Management at Amazon India. He has spent over two decades in the FMCG business across various categories & channels in India, Gulf & North Africa. His specialties include setting up new Go to Market organizations, Transforming sales systems, Turning around businesses, Growing & Developing Nascent Categories & Channels, Customer & Shopper Marketing, Digitization of processes.