‘India is one of our most strategic investments’

MUMBAI: Backed by a $2-billion (`13,000 crore) investment pledge made last year, e-commerce giant Amazon is scaling up its India operations. It has even announced a rewards programme to retain sellers. Gopal Pillai, director, seller services, Amazon India, speaks to HT on its growth plans. Excerpts:

Where does India stand in Amazon’s global market?

India is one of the most strategic investments for Amazon. Like Jeff Bezos (Amazon. com CEO) mentioned, we will continue to invest in this fastest-growing geography. We were fastest to hit $1 billion in business, which created a lot of interest in Seattle (Amazon’s headquarters).

How do you aim to grow the business amid stiff competition?

We are doing a lot of innovations. For instance, there is Amazon Easy Ship — when a customer places an order, the seller packs and keeps it ready, we then pick it up and deliver it. Around 30,000 sellers use this service. We have also launched Seller Flex —transferring our technology to the seelers. This way, if there is a demand spike for the product, it can be replenished faster. This also India-specific.

What’s the growth you have seen in the recent festive sale?

In the last round of sale, our sellers have seen 8-10 times more sales growth. The sales this time are up four times compared to last Diwali. We now have one lakh sellers, a 260% year-on-year growth.

How are you reaching out to the sellers in these small towns?

We have introduced service providers to help sellers in posting their products online. Now, 100 service providers touch 8,000 sellers. We have also launched Amazon Trained E-commerce Specialists, who can then be hired by sellers to help them succeed on our platform. There are 1,500 ATES reaching out to 9,000 sellers. Just before the festive sale, we launched rewards for high-performing sellers. Three lucky winners will go to Seattle in an all-expenses paid trip to meet with the senior leadership.

The government may come out with FDI guidelines for e-commerce. How is Amazon viewing this?

If it (e-commerce) opens up, the services and infrastructure that we provide to sellers can be opened up to manufacturers. This is in line with the Make in India and digital India missions.