 "We are just focusing on providing a great customer experience: Greg Greeley & Amit Agarwal")
At the stroke of midnight of June 4th, Amazon.com’s India footprint, Amazon.in, went live. Within a few minutes a student from IIM-Ahmedabad became the first customer to place an order for a book.
Around 40% of Amazon’s business globally comes from its marketplace platform. India became the 10th global marketplace for the e-tailer. Greg Greeley, vice president, International Expansion, Amazon.com, and Amit Agarwal, vice president and country manager, Amazon India, share with Sudipto Dey their business vision for the country. Excerpts:
Why is Amazon late to enter the Indian e-commerce market? Was it the regulatory hurdle that kept you away?
Greg Greeley (GG): India is still a nascent market and we are super excited about the potential here. There was lot of work to be done on our end and get this (Amazon.in) up.
You launched Junglee.com in India last year, and now Amazon.in. Would both co-exist?
AA: When we started Junglee fifteen months back the vision was how do we organise selection in India – be it offline or online - so that customers can decide where to buy anything, anywhere. Think of Junglee as a map of products and services. So you go to the map and say I want to buy this, and Junglee should be able to answer that question.
The vision for Amazon.in is to be a very important place in that map, a shopping destination that customers trust to buy. Both visions are very complimentary and we will continue to invest in both. Very soon you will see Amazon.in will start advertising its selections on Junglee. It is in Amazon.in’s interest to put its selections on Junglee as customers are comparing buying choices. So, both are very important for our long term visions.
When we started looking at India we did not see any service which makes it very easy (for customers) where to buy something. So it is a very ambitious goal of organising selection. The team for Junglee is very different from team for Amazon.in. They launched when they were ready and we launched when we were ready. Building Amazon.in takes lot more effort.
Scope for the two is different and there is distinct need for that service in India to help you find where to buy. Hopefully after many years when everything is online, that need may change but as of now that need remains.
How different would have been your model in India if FDI were allowed in e-commerce?
GG: We would obviously welcome relaxation of FDI, but our offering to customers is not predicated on that. We are just focussing on providing a great customer experience.
In other markets where FDI is relaxed Amazon sources lot of unique products from small manufacturers and helps them find customers. One thing FDI would do is to help Amazon buy more unique products locally and help them find customers that they did not know existed. This will benefit customers in India and businesses in India.
Are you open for acquisitions in India?
GG: This is something that we have done in other countries. So we don’t exclude any possibility.
What is the revenue model for Amazon - how does it make money?
AA: We focus our strategies around three pillars that do not change with geographies - offer vast selection to customers, low prices, and fast and reliable delivery to customers. We do the heavy lifting for the seller so that they can focus on what to sell and how to price it.
In fact the seller can choose to monitor the price on the website and change it on a real time basis through a software programme. We offer fast and reliable delivery through our fulfilment centre. Supplier can also choose to manage their own delivery. We charge suppliers a referral fee, a monthly subscription and a closing fee for our services.
How do you explain Amazon’s strategy in India keeping both the pieces of the puzzle in mind?
GG: Jaldee has a customer focus of where to find things, be it inside India or outside India. Amazon.in is the marketplace with lot of discovery mechanisms for the customer to do the actual purchasing. Junglee is like a map but also about advertising to learn about offline and online shops.
Junglee is unique to India as there is nobody else here providing that kind of service. Our overall vision remains the same – help customers to find a product or service, and buy online. To do that we have choosen a two-pronged strategy. Junglee helps you to find and discover a product or service, while Amazon.in helps you to buy that.
How has been Junglee’s progress since its launch?
AA: We have 900 sellers from India advertising their products in Junglee website. There are more than 20 million products on Junglee, across 23 categories, and these are all India centric. In fact we have many international products too as Amazon.com advertises on Junglee.
The product categories ranges from organic tea, to fresh flowers, camping gear, mountain bikes, gold jewellery, home furnishings, among other things. It is already among the top e-commerce websites in terms of customer traffic.
Amazon has more than 30 listing categories globally. Which category globally makes most money for you?
GG: When financials are broken down, the electronics merchandise category is the biggest.
So when do we get to buy Kindle and ebooks from Amazon.in?
GG: Stay tuned. We are next going to launch cameras and mobile phones.
Around 40% of Amazon’s business globally comes from its marketplace platform. India became the 10th global marketplace for the e-tailer. Greg Greeley, vice president, International Expansion, Amazon.com, and Amit Agarwal, vice president and country manager, Amazon India, share with Sudipto Dey their business vision for the country. Excerpts:
Why is Amazon late to enter the Indian e-commerce market? Was it the regulatory hurdle that kept you away?
Greg Greeley (GG): India is still a nascent market and we are super excited about the potential here. There was lot of work to be done on our end and get this (Amazon.in) up.
You launched Junglee.com in India last year, and now Amazon.in. Would both co-exist?
AA: When we started Junglee fifteen months back the vision was how do we organise selection in India – be it offline or online - so that customers can decide where to buy anything, anywhere. Think of Junglee as a map of products and services. So you go to the map and say I want to buy this, and Junglee should be able to answer that question.
The vision for Amazon.in is to be a very important place in that map, a shopping destination that customers trust to buy. Both visions are very complimentary and we will continue to invest in both. Very soon you will see Amazon.in will start advertising its selections on Junglee. It is in Amazon.in’s interest to put its selections on Junglee as customers are comparing buying choices. So, both are very important for our long term visions.
When we started looking at India we did not see any service which makes it very easy (for customers) where to buy something. So it is a very ambitious goal of organising selection. The team for Junglee is very different from team for Amazon.in. They launched when they were ready and we launched when we were ready. Building Amazon.in takes lot more effort.
Scope for the two is different and there is distinct need for that service in India to help you find where to buy. Hopefully after many years when everything is online, that need may change but as of now that need remains.
How different would have been your model in India if FDI were allowed in e-commerce?
GG: We would obviously welcome relaxation of FDI, but our offering to customers is not predicated on that. We are just focussing on providing a great customer experience.
In other markets where FDI is relaxed Amazon sources lot of unique products from small manufacturers and helps them find customers. One thing FDI would do is to help Amazon buy more unique products locally and help them find customers that they did not know existed. This will benefit customers in India and businesses in India.
Are you open for acquisitions in India?
GG: This is something that we have done in other countries. So we don’t exclude any possibility.
What is the revenue model for Amazon - how does it make money?
AA: We focus our strategies around three pillars that do not change with geographies - offer vast selection to customers, low prices, and fast and reliable delivery to customers. We do the heavy lifting for the seller so that they can focus on what to sell and how to price it.
In fact the seller can choose to monitor the price on the website and change it on a real time basis through a software programme. We offer fast and reliable delivery through our fulfilment centre. Supplier can also choose to manage their own delivery. We charge suppliers a referral fee, a monthly subscription and a closing fee for our services.
How do you explain Amazon’s strategy in India keeping both the pieces of the puzzle in mind?
GG: Jaldee has a customer focus of where to find things, be it inside India or outside India. Amazon.in is the marketplace with lot of discovery mechanisms for the customer to do the actual purchasing. Junglee is like a map but also about advertising to learn about offline and online shops.
Junglee is unique to India as there is nobody else here providing that kind of service. Our overall vision remains the same – help customers to find a product or service, and buy online. To do that we have choosen a two-pronged strategy. Junglee helps you to find and discover a product or service, while Amazon.in helps you to buy that.
How has been Junglee’s progress since its launch?
AA: We have 900 sellers from India advertising their products in Junglee website. There are more than 20 million products on Junglee, across 23 categories, and these are all India centric. In fact we have many international products too as Amazon.com advertises on Junglee.
The product categories ranges from organic tea, to fresh flowers, camping gear, mountain bikes, gold jewellery, home furnishings, among other things. It is already among the top e-commerce websites in terms of customer traffic.
Amazon has more than 30 listing categories globally. Which category globally makes most money for you?
GG: When financials are broken down, the electronics merchandise category is the biggest.
So when do we get to buy Kindle and ebooks from Amazon.in?
GG: Stay tuned. We are next going to launch cameras and mobile phones.