Prime Day 2021 biggest ever sale event for SMB sellers in India, says Amazon

Amazon said over 70 per cent new Prime members shopped from outside of the top 10 cities. (Image: REUTERS)

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: As Amazon along with Walmart-own Flipkart and other e-commerce companies stare at tougher e-commerce rules ahead, the US-headquartered e-commerce company in India witnessed its Prime Day this year as the biggest ever sale event for its small and medium business (SMB) sellers in the country. Amazon said 1,26,003 SMB sellers including artisans, weavers, women entrepreneurs, startups and brands, and local offline neighbourhood stores participated in over two weeks of lead up and 48 hours (July 26-27) of Prime Day. The company added that 1,230 sellers saw their highest-ever single day sales while nearly 25 per cent more sellers’ grossed sales over Rs 1 crore as compared to last year’s Prime Day.

“Prime members shopped from more than 126,000 SMBs and stores from across over 6,800 pin codes, making it the biggest ever sales for SMBs on Amazon.in. We are also excited that the month leading up to Prime Day became Prime Video’s best ever viewership period, firmly establishing that India loves free, fast shipping, exclusive shopping and digital benefits that Prime offers,” said Akshay Sahi, Director – Prime and Fulfillment Experience, Amazon India in a statement. The company added over 70 per cent of new Prime members shopped from outside of the top 10 cities including towns like Ananthnag (Jammu & Kashmir), Bokaro (Jharkhand), Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), Mokokchung (Nagaland), Hoshiapur (Punjab), Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu), Gadag (Karnataka) and Kasargod (Kerala). 

Amazon Seller Services – the marketplace arm of the company had reported a 42 per cent jump in its revenue and a 3 per cent increase in losses for the financial year (FY) 2019-20 from the preceding FY2018-19. The revenue for Amazon stood at Rs 11,028 crore, up from Rs 7,777 crore in FY19 while net loss increased from Rs 5,685 crore in FY19 to Rs 5,849 crore in FY20. According to a Reuters report, Amazon.com on Wednesday had filed an appeal with India’s Supreme Court against Karnataka High Court order that allowed an antitrust probe against the company and Flipkart as well to continue even as Flipkart had also appealed to the apex court against the Karnataka HC’s order on the same probe.