India is the world’s second largest potential e-commerce market with a total population of 1.339 billion and 460 million Internet users. Amazon India was launched in June 2013. By September 2018, the number of sellers on Amazon India exceeded 400,000. Amazon India’s biggest advantage comes from India’s population size and the rapidly growing e-commerce market size, which is expected to exceed US$200 billion by 2026.
Amazon India’s 2017 data report shows that 79% of the top 100 sellers use FBA, 70% of the top 1,000 sellers use FBA, and 34% of the top 10,000 sellers use FBA. In addition, 28% of the top sellers on the Indian site are mainly engaged in fashion categories. Other popular categories include electronic appliances (19%), home kitchenware (19%), and hygiene protection (7%). The product categories on Amazon India cover almost all popular product categories.
In India, 70% to 75% of people choose to buy clothing, shoes, hats and accessories online. The survey report also shows that discounts and advertising are important means to attract Indian consumers to shop online. Indians are more willing to buy durable consumer goods such as mobile phones and other electronic products made in China, as well as Chinese home appliances and decorations. At the same time, the disadvantages of the Indian market are also obvious. First, the return rate in the Indian market is high, and some sellers cannot bear the losses caused by this; second, the high import taxes and fees discourage some sellers; finally, some 3C products also have stricter requirements for certification, and some categories of people need to bear higher costs on the Amazon platform.