Amazon India customer base sees 2-fold jump during festival season sale

E-commerce firm Amazon India on Saturday said it has recorded a two-fold jump in its customer base from tier 2 and 3 cities during the first 36 hours of its festive season sale.

Tier 2 and 3 cities accounted for 75 per cent of the total customer base of the e-commerce major during its 'Great Indian Festival' sale, an Amazon India spokesperson told PTI.

"75 per cent of the customers came from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. We saw 2 times more customers from Tier 2 and 3 cities compared to last year," the spokesperson said.

The festive season sale of the company started from September 23 and will end before Diwali next month. The company gave 24 hours early access to Prime members.

Amazon claims to have recorded sale of 10 lakh unique products offered by small and medium business and startups from its platform during the first 36 hours of its festive season sale.

The company said its Prime member sign ups grew 1.9 times than last year and 68 per cent of the total new sign ups were from tier 2 and 3 cities. Amazon charges a fee from Prime users for special services but sign-ups comprises both paid and non-paid users.

"It is encouraging to witness small and medium businesses, startups, artisans, women entrepreneurs offer a wide selection of products to our customer across India," said Manish Tiwary, Vice President & Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon.

According to Amazon, customers showed preference for television brands like Samsung, OnePlus, Mi, LG and Sony.

The company's Amazon Business segment recorded 50 per cent growth in customers during the present sale.

"Amazon Business saw around 50 per cent growth in customers, over 100 per cent jump in orders and more than 200 per cent jump in sales over last year along with a 2 times growth in customers placing bulk orders for their business or corporate gifting needs. The number of sellers getting at least one business order grew by 23 per cent over last year," the statement said.

Amazon India has expanded its same-day delivery service to more than 50 major cities and towns in India for Prime members.

"Same-Day Delivery within hours is now available in 2.5 times more pin codes compared to last year, growing from 14 cities to 50 cities and towns this year, including Surat, Mysuru, Mangalore, Bhopal, Nashik, Nellore, Anantapur, Warangal, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Patna among others," the company said.