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Tag: Amazon India

  • Amazon India brings Prime Day celebrations offline with new campaign

    Amazon India brings Prime Day celebrations offline with new campaign

    MUMBAI: With the announcement of this year’s Prime Day on July 15 & 16, Amazon India has launched its offline engagement campaign as a lead up to Prime Day celebrations. The online marketplace aims to engage with customers offline and make them experience the world of Prime through vibrant on-ground installations along with a mascot that brings Prime Day to life. This India-first campaign will be visible to customers across airports, malls and IT parks in the top metros until Prime Day.   

    Amazon India has set up these experiential touchpoints to give customers a sneak-peak into the three pillars of Prime Day – great deals, blockbuster entertainment and new launches. Using characters to depict a family of Prime members, the offline campaign is aimed at preparing customers for the year’s most awaited two-day celebration that offers the best of shopping, savings and entertainment. This is in line with the company’s #DiscoverTheJoyOfMore campaign that communicates the disproportionate benefits of Prime for members.

    Talking about the campaign, Ravi Desai, Director – Mass and Brand Marketing, Amazon India said “The world of Prime revolves around members getting the best of Amazon. With over 1,000 new product launches from top brands across categories, fantastic deals and never-seen-before entertainment, Prime Day 2019 is bigger than ever. The colourful larger-than-life installations, a mascot and other uniquely crafted elements bring these messages alive by lending a touch & feel, joyous experience for customers.”

    This July, Amazon will provide Prime members worldwide the chance to get epic deals for its longest Prime Day ever. Now in its third year in India, Prime Day starts at midnight on Monday, July 15 and – for the first time ever – runs for 48 hours. Log on to www.amazon.in/primeday to know more about Prime Day.

  • Amazon’s festive season ad asks consumers to splurge with their ‘Dil-Dimaag’

    Amazon’s festive season ad asks consumers to splurge with their ‘Dil-Dimaag’

    MUMBAI: Amazon India has kicked off the upcoming season with its campaign ‘Dil-Dimaag’.

    Aimed at preparing customers for the festive season, the campaign showcases the ease and convenience of shopping on amazon.in  in some of the most loved categories of smartphones, home appliances, kitchen and fashion. 

    The campaign features three different TVCs and is on air from 20 August 2018.

    Each TVC starts with the omnipresent dilemma between the heart and the mind highlighting the various benefits of buying on Amazon such as wide range of top brands, scheduled and damage free delivery, 48-hour installation and 30-day return policy. The Dil-Dimaag campaign seeks to establish Amazon.in as the preferred choice for customers buying needs, be it festive shopping or daily essentials.

    Conceptualised by Leo Burnett Orchard and directed by Jerald Packiasamy of Still Waters Films, the campaign brings alive the heart and mind through twin characters in the film and showcases the eternal debate between the two when it comes to shopping online. With the heart (dil) eventually convinced as the mind (dimaag).

    Amazon India director for mass and brand marketing Ravi Desai says, “When it comes to shopping on Amazon we see that there is a conflict between the heart and mind of consumers. There is a desire to shop on Amazon but they are held back by certain things which they are unaware of. The Dil-Dimaag campaign seeks to help customers understand our offerings better especially in categories where purchases are planned in advance. The upcoming festive season will be the biggest celebration yet on Amazon.in where customers can expect the widest selection, the best deals and maximum savings.

    “As a lead-up to the festive season, our campaign seeks to provide information and clear doubts as our customers prepare their shopping lists. This season is going to be our biggest ever in terms of traffic, new customers, digital payment adoption as well as sales,” he adds. 

    Leo Burnett Orchard executive creative director Neel Roy mentions, “Each of the stories we chose to execute is based on insights into various concerns with online shopping. Your mind and heart are always in a state of conflict. When doubts get clarified with logical answers, decision making becomes easy. So we chose a simple storytelling format with a small twist. We told these stories using twins. It was a fun way to execute ‘Dil and Dimaag’ that conveyed our intended message that when both mind and heart agree, your decision becomes a whole lot easier.”

  • Amazon scaling up investment for Indian marketplace biz

    Amazon scaling up investment for Indian marketplace biz

    MUMBAI: E-commerce giant Amazon has invested additional Rs 2,700 crore for its Indian marketplace unit at a time when it continues to battle its local rival Flipkart along with investing about Rs 100 crore for food retail business in India, according to a report from Mint.

    According to the regulatory documents filed with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Paper .vc, the marketplace arm of Amazon India , Amazon Seller Services, received the funds earlier this month. Now its total investment in India stands roughly at $4 billion. The company has been spending all its cash on building massive warehouses, a large logistics unit, marketing, discounts and increasing product assortment.

    Earlier the online retailer pledged to invest at least $5 billion in India along with allocating an additional $500 million to build its food retail business. Back in June 2016, Amazon Inc CEO Jeff Bezos committed an additional $3 billion after fulfilling the initial target of $2billion made in 2014. The Indian market holds high importance for Amazon Inc’s international expansion.

    The report also says that earlier Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal indicated that the company will invest as much as necessary to conquer the Indian market. Flipkart is also leaving no stone unturned, especially on the back of the deal with deep-pocked Walmart. Both the companies are focusing on sales growth rather than cutting losses.

  • Flipkart, Amazon reduce ad spends on Google

    Flipkart, Amazon reduce ad spends on Google

    MUMBAI: With Google launching an e-commerce platform in the near future, the country’s largest online retail stores, Flipkart and Amazon India, have slashed advertising spends on the web-search company. Both the players see this as a serious threat, as a Mint report quoted two people, familiar with the matter.

    According to a person quoted above, Flipkart and Amazon have reduced spending on Google by more than 30 per cent in the previous three months compared to months before and shifted some of that ad spending to other platforms. Until last year, the two online retailers used to spend hundreds of crores of rupees buying ads on Google.

    Google’s interest in e-commerce stems from its worry that some shoppers are going straight to Amazon to search for products rather than using Google. If this trend continues, it could threaten Google’s core business of digital advertising. Amazon is already generating billions of dollars in ad revenues in the US.

    The people added that, Google was keen on investing in Flipkart because it wanted a strategic partner to help it with its e-commerce push. However, Google wanted a much closer collaboration than Flipkart and its new owner, Walmart, were willing to offer.

    Google’s e-commerce push and the rising importance of Flipkart and Amazon in digital ads are the latest examples of how intertwined the tech business has become and how internet firms are increasingly encroaching on each other’s turf.

    Google’s retail entry may result in higher losses for existing e-commerce firms. The e-commerce market grew 23 per cent to $18 billion in 2017, according to RedSeer Consulting. India’s e-commerce market is a fraction of the size of China’s or the US. Yet, Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall bear huge losses while specialty e-commerce firms are struggling to grow sales quickly.

    A new serious entrant with deep pockets like Google will strengthen the view that India’s e-commerce market is overcrowded.

  • Amazon India’s new monthly subscription plan

    Amazon India’s new monthly subscription plan

    MUMBAI: Amazon India has added a new monthly subscription plan for its Prime members available at Rs 129.

    With an auto-renewal mechanism activated by default, the payment methods for this subscription are currently limited to debit and credit cards only. While users can pay by any credit card, the payment option from debit card is limited to a select few.

    Earlier, Amazon India offered only a yearly subscription plan at Rs 999. However, consumers that have subscribed to it cannot switch to a monthly plan now.

    Amazon Prime users can access Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Music store as well as get the facility of free and fast delivery. 

    Amazon Prime service was launched in India in 2016, three years after its  global launch.

    Also read:  India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    Netflix, Amazon may contribute to rising production cost in India

     

  • Amazon India launches Weavesmart on its marketplace

    Amazon India launches Weavesmart on its marketplace

    MUMBAI: Amazon India today announced the launch of Weavesmart, the largest e-commerce store for handlooms in India and an e-marketing partner for the Ministry of Textiles for promoting India Handloom Brand and Handloom Mark products, on its marketplace. Through this alliance, handloom & handcrafted products by weavers from various parts of the country associated with Weavesmart will now be available to millions of Amazon customers across India. Amazon India intends to help these associated weavers reach millions of customers across India and in turn help in empowering them.

    Weavesmart brings quality and vibrant weaves such as handloom & handcrafted sarees, dress materials, dupattas, accessories and home & living products from handloom clusters belonging to the smallest of villages in India. Helping the weavers to display their creativity on a large scale, Weavesmart today has more than 3000 weavers in its network and more than 20,000 products.

    Talking about this launch, Weavesmart, CEO, Ms. Nishita Manne said “Indian weavers produce some of the finest handloom and handcrafted products which have always found resonance with shoppers across the country. Weavesmart was launched with the objective to bring together the weaving community and buyers and provide a platform to showcase authentic and beautifully handcrafted products created with a lot of passion and hard work by the weavers and artisans. We are delighted to partner with Amazon India as this launch helps to achieve this objective. It will provide the weavers with the opportunity to reach out to millions of Amazon.in customers and expand their sales.”

    “In line with our vision to transform the way India buys and sells, Amazon India has been continuously working towards enabling more and more sellers, weavers and artisans to embrace online selling and scale greater heights. Our partnership with Weavesmart is another key step towards our constant endeavor which is aligned with the Government’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. With our experience and deep understanding of customers across the country, this launch will help provide a wider reach for these products which in-turn will have a positive impact in the lives of the weavers associated with Weavesmart. We are happy to support Weavesmart and offer them the most comprehensive suite of seller services and requisite tools in this digital journey,” said Gopal Pillai, Director & GM, Seller Services, Amazon India.

    There are several pockets in the country with SMEs that offer a rich variety of offerings from apparels to handicrafts to organic products. With the aim to enable more and more of these SMEs as well as micro entrepreneurs like weavers, artisans and craftsmen to benefit from ecommerce and grow their businesses, Amazon.in launched the ‘Kala Haat’ program in 2016 and through its efforts, Amazon India wants to give these craftspersons’ the opportunity to showcase their products. Amazon India has been relentlessly working in collaboration with its on-ground partner Prione to penetrate into deeper regions in the country and put forward the real ‘Make in India’ offering to its customers. There are various initiatives that the company has taken in this direction through government partnerships and conducting workshops across the country.

    All products listed by artisans and weavers are available through the ‘Handloom & Handicraft’ store on Amazon.in. Launched in 2016, the store aims at bringing the rich Indian heritage of handicrafts and handlooms to Indian consumers’ doorsteps. The store has enabled craftsmen from across India to come on Amazon.in from across categories such as sarees, jewelry, handbags, shoes and more. Amazon.in has partnered with various government bodies such as DC Handlooms and Gujrat Tribal Development Dept. to onboard 1100+ weavers/cooperatives/artisans in 11 states through 35+ workshops impacting upwards of 1.5 lac weaver & artisan households.

    Amazon.in has signed a MoU with the Telangana government to promote their handloom and handicrafts online. In Telangana, APCO (handloom) and Lepakshi (handicraft) have been launched, while in West Bengal & Orissa Amazon.in is working with Tantuja (handloom), Jute Corporation of India and Boyanika (handloom). In Karnataka & Tamil Nadu, Amazon.in has enabled Cauvery Handlooms and Loomworld (handloom) to sell their products online. Amazon.in has also worked with central government agencies like TRIFED & Craft Cottage Industries Corporation to enable ‘Tribes India’ & ‘CCIE’ on the Amazon.in marketplace and has collaborated with UP Khadi & Handlooms to enable the Khadi societies in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

  • India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    MUMBAI: Amazon’s unstoppable march continues worldwide, including India. Putting an end to the speculation around the number of Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has finally revealed the data in a letter to shareholders. The e-commerce giant has crossed 100 million subscribers for its Prime service globally. In the letter, Bezos specifically talks about its India feat to shareholders: “Prime added more members in India in its first year than any previous geography in Amazon’s history.”

    The letter includes an entire mention to India, not given to any other country, including the US. He said, “Amazon.in is the fastest-growing marketplace in India and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile, according to comScore and SimilarWeb. The Amazon.in mobile shopping app was also the most downloaded shopping app in India in 2017, according to App Annie.”

    He went on to state that Prime selection in India now included more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers and that Prime Video was investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and more than a dozen new shows in production.

    For the first time, after 13 long years of the service’s launch, the company has shared such a figure publicly. The reason could also be to counter Netflix’s revelation earlier in the week when it said that its subscriber numbers were up from 117.6 million a year ago to 125 million globally. Bezos started off the letter by congratulating its people for making Amazon rank first on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the eighth year in a row.

    In the letter, Bezos said that Prime Video continued to drive Prime member adoption and retention, countering analysts who said that Prime Video acts as a catalyst to boost its e-commerce business.

    Since its entry in the Indian market, it has left Netflix behind in the race, its prime competitor in the international market. To strengthen its foothold in the Indian market, it launched original shows for Indian audiences last year. It recently announced a new Prime Original reality show Hear Me. Love Me. It also announced the second season of Inside Edge after the show created a stir after its first season.

    Bezos lauded his customers in his letter. He said, “One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static–they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’. I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before.”

    He went on to state that the only way to stay ahead of rising customer expectation is by giving them high standards. He didn’t shy away from admitting that Amazon had seen ‘billions of dollars worth of failures’ on its way to meet this target.

    Amazon Music is also doing well globally. “Amazon Music continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers. Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months,” the letter read.

    Moreover, Amazon has managed to reduce the amount of time required to teach Alexa new languages using machine translation and transfer learning techniques that has helped it to serve countries such as India and Japan.

    In India, other than competing with local and global OTT players, it is also fighting its domestic e-commerce rival Flipkart. According to a Mint report, Amazon India nearly doubled its authorised capital to Rs 31,000 crore ($4.74 billion) last year. As India is a large market, the company is trying to explore every opportunity to woo more subscribers with better infrastructure and technology.

    “We continue to aspire to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and we recognise this to be no small or easy challenge. We know there is much we can do better, and we find tremendous energy in the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Bezos said concluding the letter.

    Also Read :

    Amazon India to launch 10 originals in 2018

    Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

  • Gaurav Gandhi to head Amazon Prime Video India

    Gaurav Gandhi to head Amazon Prime Video India

    MUMBAI: The man behind building Viacom18’s digital venture Voot into a giant OTT platform in India is all set to head rival international player Amazon Prime Video as its director and country manager, India. A source tells Indiantelevision.com that Gandhi, who was on the top priority list, will be taking up the charge very soon.

    When Nitesh Kripalani quit in mid-2017, the position, which Gandhi will now fill, was empty and Vijay Subramaniam was roped in for the interim period.

    Gandhi was with Viacom18 for eight years in various roles. He joined Viacom18 in 2010 as COO and, within 11 months, he became the head of distribution and international business. After this, he was COO of Sun18 North before moving to IndiaCast Media Distribution (a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom18. Gandhi’s mandate was to monetise all channel and content assets across media, platforms and geographies.

    He is credited with growing its franchise overseas, establishing a strong distribution business at IndiaCast and leading the commercial function during the early days of the organisation.

    Before joining Viacom18, Gandhi was with NDTV Imagine as executive VP of business operations and content sales and Star Group as VP commercial and business planning.

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  • Amazon Prime country head Nitesh Kripalani quits

    MUMBAI: After the neck-and-neck race in  the OTT space in India with originals, regionals and prominent content deals, comes a speed bump. Nitesh Kripalani has resigned as the country head of Amazon Prime Video in India, an Amazon India spokesperson confirmed late last evening. 

    “Amazon confirms that Nitesh Kripalani, who is leading Amazon Prime Video in India, has decided to move on from Amazon due to personal reasons.  Nitesh helped build the team and deliver a great experience to our customers.  We wish Nitesh the best in his future endeavors,” the spokesperson said.

    Prime Video, available in over 200 countries and territories, with an eligible membership, allows one to watch movies and TV shows from its website on your computer, or through its app on any of the following devices: Android smartphones and tablets, iOS devices (iPhone, iPad & iPod touch), and Smart TVs (supported Samsung, Sony & LG models).

    Two years after Kripalani joined Amazon, Amazon India launched Prime Video in December 2016 and subsequently tied ups with several leading content creators and production houses such as Excel Entertainment, Dharma Productions, Vishesh Films, TSeries, and Yash Raj Films, among other.

    One of the investors in Timesaverz Dotcom since October 2011, Kripalani worked with Sony Pictures Network as an EVP where he oversaw business development, new media, and digital/syndication and reportedly instrumental in planning SonyLiv.

    The SVoD player has since claimed to have seen a crucial growth in subscriber figures. The streaming service recently launched its first India original ‘Inside Edge’ and also stitched a deal with exclusive streaming of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s future movies.

    Amazon Prime has seen significant growth after it invested majorly in TV shows, exclusive movies, and stand-up comedy content.

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  • BBC Worldwide to provide 600 hours of content to Amazon India

    BBC Worldwide to provide 600 hours of content to Amazon India

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide announced a licensing deal with Amazon that will give Amazon Prime members in India access to over 600 hours of factual and pre-school content from BBC.

    “In the last year or so, we have seen digital consumption in India increase exponentially. We are very excited to be partnering with Amazon Prime Video India to satisfy viewers’ demands for quality, premium programmes from the BBC,” said BBC Worldwide SVP and GM Myleeta Aga.

    Indian subscribers to Amazon Prime Video now have access to CBeebies programs, which have never been broadcast before in India, including Clangers, the pink, long-nosed, inventive and lovable mouse-shaped creatures who live on a little blue planet, out in the starry stretches of space, not far from Earth; Dinopaws, an animation series about the delightful adventures of a trio of very young, inquisitive dinos; and Hey Duggee, the animated series narrated by award-winning comedian Alexander Armstrongo.

    Subscribers to the service will also able to watch award-winning and highly-rated BBC factual programs such as Gandhi, The World’s Weirdest Weapons, and The Genius of Inventions.

    Amazon Prime Video India director and country head Nitesh Kripalani added, “We are pleased to work with BBC Worldwide to avail premium quality pre-school and documentary programmes to our Prime Video customers. We are very humbled by the positive response from customers to Prime Video and we are confident that the BBC’s programmes will resonate with customers. We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with BBC Worldwide.”