65% customers order from Tier 2 and beyond on Amazon India, says Amazon India V-P

COVID-19 created unprecedented challenges for people, globally and across India, but e-commerce platforms have played a critical role in making it easy for consumers to order essentials and, at the same time help offline retailers sell online.

Throughout this period, sellers on Amazon India have seen high demand in categories such as groceries, work-from-home and online schooling enablers like laptops, smart devices, headphones, furniture, consumer electronics and apparel, amongst others.

Grocery as a sub-category grew over 2X post-March last year and has become a gateway for new customers on Amazon India. It also witnessed an increasing demand for products across categories, including a steep rise in demand for medical equipment and supplies and products that enable WFH.

"The pandemic has accelerated technology adoption, which brought a structural shift in online shopping behaviour and we are seeing more and more customers coming online for their shopping needs," said Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India.

Talking about the customer demand, he said: "Last 15-18 months, we have seen a lot of customers move online; 65 per cent of customer orders and over 85 per cent of new customers on Amazon.in are from Tier 2 and below geographies. Customers across nearly 100 per cent of India's serviceable pin codes are shopping with us."

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated online adoption of not just consumers but small shopkeepers too. The O-2-O (offline to online) model that started last year has helped many offline retailers sell on popular e-commerce platforms too.

"What we learnt from the COVID-19 crisis is how important a role Amazon and e-commerce can play -- for our customers as well as for small businesses and the economy. In the face of this disruption, it is heartening to see how lakhs of sellers, tens and thousands of local shops, our delivery and logistics players and others have stepped up to serve and support customers."

Amazon Great Indian Festival 2021, which started early this month, saw millions of customers buying from small sellers listed on Amazon India, including local shops, start-ups and brands, artisans, weavers and small and medium businesses (SMBs).

As per the company, during Prime Early Access on October 2, the number of local shops participating in the event more than doubled compared to the last year. "We also saw a 60 per cent increase in sellers who received their highest-ever single day sales year-on-year on Amazon.in. The number of sellers receiving an order from Tier 2/3 cities jumped by 21%, and 16% more sellers received orders over last year," adds Manish Tiwary.

Moreover, for Amazon, investments in voice, video technologies and building regional language capabilities are enabling the next 200-300 million customers to benefit from e-commerce.

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