Amazon India 'Confident' This Festive Season Sale Will Be Its Biggest Ever

Amazon India is confident that this year's festive season sale will be its biggest ever, as the e-commerce major gears up for the next two months.

Marked by Diwali, Dussehra and now grand online sales, the next two months are expected to show an uptick in sales and consumption of everything from electronics and edibles to jewellery and home decor.

Quoting a study with Ipsos, Saurabh Srivastava, vice president of categories at Amazon India, said about 50% of customers are expected to spend more than they did last year.

"We're confident that this year's sale will be our biggest ever. We're adding Prime members at a record pace and customer sentiment is booming this year," he told NDTV Profit.

The top Amazon executive added that they're investing in speed in response to the faster delivery times that quick-commerce firms have brought in.

"Amazon's core is to provide wide selection; we deliver 19 crore products to 100% serviceable pincodes in the country. We continue to invest in speed and this time around 10 lakh products are enabled for same-day delivery while 40 lakh are available for next-day delivery," he said.

Srivastava added that Amazon is increasingly seeing larger demand for Tier 2 and 3 towns. "More than 80% of orders received were from non-metros last year. It is becoming a very large market for us now."

With the growth of e-commerce, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal raised concerns about its impact on small retailers and kirana stores. In response, Srivastava said the platform makes it possible for small retailers to deliver to the entire country and beyond.

"We have 16 lakh sellers on our platform who are looking forward to the festive season and making it big. We're focussing on taking sellers beyond India as well. Currently, we export goods worth $13 billion from India to 18 countries and we see it reaching $20 billion even before 2027."

"For this festive season, we're providing 43 million m³ space of storage to our sellers and creating as many as 1.1 lakh seasonal jobs for delivery workers and at our fulfilment centres," he added.