New Delhi: A day after the e-tailer giant Flipkart announced a $1 billion round of funding, global online retailer Amazon said it would invest an additional $2 billion to support its rapid growth and enhance its customer and seller experience in India.
“After our first year in business, the response from customers in India has far surpassed our expectations,†said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, in a statement.
“We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India. With this additional investment of $2 billion, our team continues to think big, innovate and raise the bar for customers in India. At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales. A big ‘thank you’ to our customers in India – we’ve never seen anything like this.†he added. (Also Read: Flipkart aims to become $100 billion firm)
Just two days ago, Amazon had announced the expansion of its fulfilment centres. From its existing two in Mumbai and Bangalore, the e-commerce giant will now open fulfilment centres in Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Tauru (on Gurgaon outskirts). The move will double Amazon’s storage capacity to over half a million sq ft. Fulfilment centres are large warehouses where it ships products to customers.
The $2 billion investment comes despite the fact that Amazon registered heavy losses in its second quarter. Experts have further stated that the losses in the third quarter could be much worse.
Meanwhile, the Indian e-commerce market was worth $13 billion in 2013, with online travel accounting for over 70 per cent of consumer e-commerce transactions. Online sales of retail goods totalled $1.6 billion in 2013, according to a research firm, and are expected to reach $76 billion by 2021.Â