Amazon India sees strong festive sales in 2023, calls it best in 13 yrs

E-commerce major Amazon India on Tuesday said its 2023 festive sale is the best in its 13 years of operations in the country fuelled by a strong demand, a company official said.

Online sales by the e-commerce industry during this festive season are expected to witness 18-20 per cent growth to reach Rs 90,000 crore, according to market research firm Redseer Strategy Consultants.

The first four days of this year's festive season sales by e-tailers showed a 16 per cent year-on-year growth, reaching a gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 29,000 crore.

The government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has also reached a new high in respect of retail orders, mostly for food, beverages and groceries during this festive season, reports said.

"This is the best year festival sale in every parameter," Amazon director (consumer electronics, personal computing, and large appliances) Nishant Sardana said.

Amazon did not find any slowdown in rural buying indicating a revival in demand which was facing slugishness post Covid.

Rural areas and smaller towns in fact showed strong growth with 80 per cent of Amazon's orders coming from tier II, III, and IV markets, Sardana asserted but did not disclose the GMV of goods sold.

The company has four more days to go before its festive sale ends.

Amazon said it has ramped up its capacity and technology interventions to meet the demand due to the sale.

"Our pursuit has been to remain relevant to each and every individual and be their personal store through continuously improved personalization, lowered latency using the latest AI technology and through new features such as Amazon Live, visual search, and automated product videos," said Kishore Thota, Director of shopping experience, India and emerging markets, Amazon India.

The company said it will have 1000 plus streams as part of Amazon Live through a curated list of over 300 influencers across tech, gaming, fashion, lifestyle, home, sports, and beauty and the concept is doing well.

The role of influencers are gradually, however, coming under the regulators' scanner.

Amazon India has three large fulfillment centers in Bengal with a total storage space of more than 3 million cubic feet.

"We have close to 55,000 sellers from West Bengal selling everything from apparel, sports goods, hosiery items, consumables, and a lot more on the Amazon India platform," Thota said.

Amazon India claimed it has created more than 100,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network for the Indian festive season. These opportunities include direct and indirect jobs across India in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Chennai.