Building Fastest Growing Marketplace in IndiaAmazon India has earned the sobriquet of 'Apni Dukan' with 100+ million customers. What's more, it allows one to shop in 7 languages, and has made inroads into smaller towns as well. During the festive season, close to 70% of its sales come from smaller towns

In 2013, when Amazon entered the e-commerce space in India, it was in stiff competition with Flipkart and Snapdeal. Cut to 2023, it has not only surpassed the two online marketplaces, but has also earned the sobriquet of 'Apni Dukan' with 100+ million customers. What's more, it allows one to shop in 7 languages, and has made inroads into smaller towns as well.

During the festive season, close to 70% of its sales come from smaller towns. "We have continued to invest in customer experience and infrastructure and are continuing to work on improving the experience for new customers," says Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, Amazon India on the sidelines of Amazon Smbhav 2023, marking 10 years of the tech giant in India.

Besides the customer base, there has been an increase in the seller base too. "We have close to 12 lakh sellers with us now and we are making use of technology in some ways to give each of them a personal assistant. Our Sahay support for sellers is one such initiative," says Tiwary, who spent two decades at consumer goods giant Unilever, and headed sales at HUL before being promoted to the role of managing director, Gulf region for Unilever and then Amazon.

Tiwary shares that last year the company invested in GlowRoad, which does social ecommerce. "We took it over in the middle of last year. Month on month we are growing 15%. India is a diverse country. One size doesn't fit all. We are continuing to work on improving the experience for new customers," adds Tiwary.

In its latest initiative, the company has also forayed into grocery offering. "If one wants to engage with customers, one needs to have grocery offerings and fashion offerings. Lots of companies are doing good work. Our Amazon Fresh is now available in 14 cities. It's a challenging cateroy for our sellers, because the business model has to be really good and they are working on it," shares Tiwary.