Amazon Pumped INR 650 Cr In Its Wholesale Unit In India During Festive Season

US-based ecommerce giant Amazon has infused fresh capital of INR 650 Cr (approx $87 Mn) into Amazon Wholesale (India), according to regulatory documents. This comes shortly after it infused INR 1,000 Cr ($134 Mn approx) in its Indian payment arm – Amazon Pay early November.

According to the regulatory filings, Amazon Corporate Holdings Pvt Ltd and Amazon Inc have made significant investments in the Wholesale unit, on October 26, 2021. The funds were aimed to help the ecommerce company build a stronger fund chest to bolster its wholesale B2B business in India.

The US-based e-commerce platform uses its wholesale unit as a distribution channel that sources products from brands directly. It then supplies these to third-party vendors to sell on their online marketplaces. Walmart-owned Flipkart also has its own B2B distributor called Flipkart India.

The ecom giant has been making significant investments in expanding infrastructure and thus, its footprint in one of the world’s largest ecommerce markets — India. Previously, it also infused INR 450 Cr into Amazon Pay India, its payments arm.

Amid a slew of payment services, Amazon Pay in India is very far behind, in a market dominated by PhonePe and Google Pay. The funds would help it build a significant place in the Indian fintech ecosystem. It has also entered into a strategic partnership with online ticketing firm, MakeMyTrip to offer travel services on the app and website, smoothening the online ticketing process of passengers. The company had started the domestic flight booking service on its platform in 2019.

In October 2021, Amazon had also infused fresh capital of INR 1,460 Cr ($193 Mn) into Amazon Seller Services. Seller services is a marketplace that helps sellers to sell their products online in India and internationally. As far as infrastructure was concerned for its pre-Diwali sale, Amazon India had expanded its fulfilment centre network; increased its storage capacity by 40%, with 60+ fulfilment centres in 15 states offering 43 Mn cubic ft space to its sellers.

While Amazon’s cumulative fund infusion was over $400 Mn before the festive season, its arch-rival Flipkart had raised $3.6 Bn in a second-time investment from Softbank group. A large part of the sum (almost $2.5 Bn) was proposed to be used during the season sale period.

Overall, goods worth $4.6 Bn were sold online by brands in the festive sale month, according to consulting firm RedSeer Consulting. Flipkart dominated the festive season sales with a 64% market share and Amazon came in second with 28%.

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