Post having received an infusion of Rs 2,600 crore into the marketplace in May 2018, Amazon India recently announced the infusion of an additional Rs 2,700 crore by the parent firm. Post this move, Amazon’s overall infusion has successfully hit the $1 billion mark since the beginning of 2018.
Incidentally, the parent company has also injected Rs 100 crore into the food business – Amazon Retail. Amazon previously committed a total investment of $5 billion to capture the India market.
Business Today reports that the fresh capital is meant to beef up the war chest for Amazon which needs to compete against Flipkart, one of the Indian e-commerce market leaders that has fortified its business with a Walmart partnership. So far, the Seattle company has invested approximately $4 billion in its Indian operations.
Analysts have reportedly said that Amazon will be seeking to push its business aggressively during the Indian festive season in an effort to beat Flipkart in terms of market share. Recently released data indicates that Amazon had a market share of approximately 31% while Flipkart Group had a market share of over 39%.
The Seattle based company is also aiming to invest approximately $500 million in the food retail of Amazon India which is anticipated to be piloted in Pune. Analysts point out that though Amazon will be concentrating on driving the grocery market, the growth of the same is expected to be slow and the focus on electronics and fashion are predicted to keep Amazon’s customers from migrating to other platform in pursuit of these categories.
Experts claim that after Walmart, Amazon’s US-based rival announced the plan to acquire 77% stake in Flipkart, India’s largest online retailer, Amazon updated its risk factors concerning the competition in global markets. The online retail giant has been rapidly expanding the definition of retail as it has begun including physical, omni-channel and ecommerce, with its entrance to the food retail industry in India earlier in 2018.