The Indian (Really?) Ecommerce Saga
Amazon puts in more skin in the game. An additional investment of $386 million (2,700 crores) which makes its so far investment to $4 billion (Amazon has committed an investment of at least $5 billion in the Indian market).
After losing out to Jack Ma’s Alibaba in the massive Chinese market, Bezos can’t take a chance of losing India — it’s the most important international market (by priority, not revenues).
However, the now-Walmart owned Flipkart maintains a steady lead. What Flipkart has is a nexus of companies from logistics (Ekart) to payments (PhonPe) to its core Flipkart platform as well as fashion verticals (Myntra — Jabong).
Can Walmart afford to lose (to Amazon!) in this vital market where it hasn’t been able to enter in the brick and mortar segment due to FDI norms?
While Flipkart leads in non-metros and has greater awareness, Amazon is pacing on with its Prime membership (one of the world’s most successful loyalty programmes).
Aggressively investing in Prime Video content, having unveiled Amazon Music, and using its faster shipping options to lock in consumers for making Amazon the place you go to when you need something urgently. And over time: ‘when you need something’.
Flipkart is said to be cooking up a loyalty programme as well — but Amazon Prime India’s over 10 million existing members provide it with an edge. In associated areas where Flipkart has footholds like Payments and Logistics, Amazon is investing heavily in Amazon Pay and Amazon Logistics. It’s not only building massive capacities but also expanding hyperlocal with Amazon Now and to some extent — Amazon Pantry.
It seems these companies are all fighting multiple battles. PhonPe battles Paytm. Prime Video battles Netflix and Hotstar. Amazon Music battles Saavn and Wynk (while Airtel provides a free Prime subscription to postpaid customers above a certain tier).
Amazon also has a host of innovations that it has been introducing in India — most recently the Echo suite of home speakers powered by Alexa. Kindle has been there for a while, and Kindle Unlimited is growing its collection (with questionable publisher side arrangements for KDP users). Amazon private labels are diving in too. Amazon has certainly figured out the Basics!
The chess of Indian e-commerce plays out with Walmart-backed Kalyan Krishnamurthy headed Flipkart versus Jeff Bezos’ India pick, Amit Agarwal’s Amazon India.
However, will Jack Ma’s Alibaba be the dark horse? Or will Google swiftly (Think Tez) make inroads?
Also, what makes the story ‘Indian’ apart from the chessboard?
