Great Summer Sale to be the biggest ever this year: Amazon India exec

Premium and 5G smartphone sales are expected to drive growth

E-commerce major Amazon India is expecting its ongoing Great Summer Sale event to be its biggest ever, driven by robust premium and 5G smartphone sales, an executive at the firm said on Thursday.

“Premium device sales and 5G upgrades drove most of the smartphone sales last year. We have seen this trend accelerate during the Summer Sale event this year…All indications are that this will be the biggest Summer sale that we have ever had,” Ranjit Babu, Director, Smartphones and Television, Amazon India, told Business Standard.

This comes at a time when the Indian smartphone market has begun to show signs of recovery after shipments took a tumble last year.

Indian smartphone shipments reached 35.3 million units, up 15 per cent year-on-year (YoY), in the first quarter (Q1) of calendar year (CY) 2024. Growth was largely due to the lower base of Q1 2023, which faced inflationary pressures, weak demand, and stockpile issues, according to market research firm Canalys.

“The market is growing in pockets. In terms of customer facing demand, we are seeing softness in the lower price segments – less than Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000, which carries on from the previous year. On the other hand, there is buoyancy in the premium and ultra-premium segments,” Babu said.

Babu added that the premium category, where growth has doubled YoY in Q1, now accounts for nearly one-fourth (over 20 per cent) of smartphone sales on Amazon.

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The uptick in demand for premium devices, Babu added, is driving value growth for Amazon.

“We are seeing significant demand for products like iPhones and flagship OnePlus and Samsung devices,” he said.

According to Babu, premium smartphone sales are primarily being fuelled by better financing options such as no-cost and low-cost equated monthly instalments (EMIs) and Amazon Pay Later.

Through its flagship offerings, OnePlus is the most sought-after smartphone brand on Amazon in Q1, while devices like the OnePlus Nord CE4 5G are catering to demand in the mid-range category. Other popular brands include Samsung, Realme, Xiaomi and newcomer iQOO, Babu revealed.

“More than 90 per cent of smartphones sold on Amazon are 5G devices. We now have 5G phones available at less than Rs 8,000 as well, so there are a lot of options for customers in the budget price band,” he said.  

AI-enabled smartphones, such as the Galaxy S24, and Google Pixel 8, among others, are also expected to drive growth going forward as more original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) look to produce such devices.

Notably, the sale of smartphones, across categories, is not limited to tier 1 cities. Consumers from tier 2 and beyond cities are driving most of the sales on Amazon.

“Demand from customers from tier 2 and beyond cities is increasing. As much as 72 per cent of smartphone sales are now coming from these regions,” Babu said.