Business News
To topple Flipkart from top spot, Amazon India logs 67% sales volume growth in September
Inching closer to topple off its bigger e-commerce rival Flipkart in terms of gross sales, Amazon India said its gross sales volume rose 67 per cent in the September quarter. Amazon India also claimed it grew much faster than Flipkart in April-September with gross merchandise sales (GMS) jumping 66 per cent in six months, Livemint reported.
The India unit of Seattle-based e-commerce giant reported an increase of 72 per cent in Gross sales by value during the quarter, Mint report said. Gross sales is the value of goods sold on the online marketplace.
Amazon India’s sales growth for the six-month period has reportedly outdone the sales growth at Flipkart when one compares the numbers recently released by Naspers, an investors in Flipkart. Naspers had estimated the growth of Flipkart’s gross sales during the said period at 43 per cent.
“Flipkart continues to outpace the industry and our growth has accelerated significantly during the July-September quarter on the back of a very strong festive season. This report actually refers to the January-June period and, as all growth data, has a lag of three months so the comparison isn’t like-for-like or relevant,” a Flipkart spokesperson said.
Amazon India’s claim of growing faster than domestic challenger Flipkart does not take into account Flikart’s acquisitions like Myntra and Jabong.
“We are clearly growing faster than industry peers who are posting growth at about 20-25 per cent. Authenticated data, for us and competitors, show we grew faster than competition in the six months period. We grew 66 per cent in GMS during this period, while authenticated data of rival shows they grew 43 per cent. We are also surprised by certain narratives about rival’s turnaround story despite credible data showing we are growing faster,” an Amazon India spokesperson told TOI.
In a bid to fend off India’s homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon invested Rs 2,900 crore in its India operations in November. The fresh investment is part of Amazon’s commitment to put in $5 billion into the Indian market. With this recent investment, Amazon has invested $2.6 billion or Rs 17,840 crore in the current financial year itself, according to regulatory filings with Registrar of Companies.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had last year committed investments to the tune of $5 billion into the Indian market
