Amazon is betting big on its two year old operations in India and the latest extravaganza has been a three day Great Indian Sale and it looks like it has gone off rather well.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos believes India to be the next trillion dollar market and it is vital that Amazon is at the centre of this burgeoning, emerging ecommerce arena. Diego Piacentini Amazon’s SVP for international retail says: “The size of opportunity is so large it will be measured in trillions, not billions—trillions of dollars, that is, not rupees. We know that in order to win in India we need to do things we have never done in any other country. We need great people, a great platform, and honestly, a lot of money.” Incidentally, Mr Piancentini is Amazon second biggest individual shareholder after Bezos himself.
Think of the Great Indian Sale as rather like a Prime Day as seen in the UK and US. There’s a marketing and PR push promoting dozens of deals to get people clicking and buying.
It’s coming to an end now and the selection is looking rather thin but looking back over the last few days there was a decent selection and what looked like excellent deals. With India of such strategic importance to the future of Amazon it looks like they’re making headway.