Amazon has missed a golden opportunity in India’s rapidly growing quick-commerce sector.
Competitors like Zomato’s Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy’s Instamart are flourishing, with projections indicating that these companies could achieve $4.5 billion in sales.
This is a share of the overall $18 billion in sales for Amazon India.
The quick-commerce market in India is growing at over 125%, far outpacing the 11-12% growth of the overall e-commerce sector.
This reflects a shift in consumer behavior, particularly in urban areas, where fast delivery services are becoming increasingly popular.
However, Amazon has not responded to this trend.
The company has yet to launch any quick-commerce services in India and has even mocked the concept of fast delivery in its advertisements.
This lack of response is starting to appear disconnected from the market’s current direction.
Meanwhile, Flipkart, Amazon’s main competitor in India, has introduced a quick-commerce service called Flipkart Minutes.
This move aims to attract the urban customers that Amazon may be losing due to its inaction.
Amazon’s market share in India has been declining for over three years.
This decline is seen by the recent resignation of Amazon India’s head, Manish Tiwary.
Adding to Amazon’s challenges, the social commerce platform Meesho has gained significant market share in smaller Indian cities, surpassing Amazon in mobile app usage.
Under the leadership of CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon seems to be shifting its focus towards its cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), in India.
A huge portion of Amazon’s $15 billion investment in the country, around $12.7 billion, is directed towards AWS.
In addition to these challenges, Amazon has faced regulatory hurdles in India, including restrictions on its e-commerce operations and a high-profile defeat in its bid to acquire Future Group.
These issues have further complicated Amazon’s growth in the region.
Analysts have criticized Amazon for not being strategic enough and for being outpaced by competitors like Zomato, Zepto, Meesho, and Flipkart. Moreover, Amazon has struggled in other areas of the Indian market, such as mobile payments, food delivery, and wholesale distribution.
These struggles raise concerns about the company’s ability to quickly adapt to changing consumer habits in India.
