Sharp rise in Amazon customer base in tier II, smaller towns: Bhasin

The Amazon. in the marketplace has witnessed an exponential increase in customer base in tier II cities and smaller towns since the coronavirus-induced lockdowns last year, Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME and Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India, said.

Work-from-home and online schooling enablers are in high demand, besides personal grooming, wellness, and grocery products as more customers are getting online for their shopping needs since mid-2020, he added.

In an interview with PTI, Bhasin said, ''In the last 15- 18 months, we have seen a lot of customers move online, not just in tier I & II cities but also in smaller towns.

Today, 65 percent of customer orders and over 85 percent of new customers on Amazon. are from tier II and below geographies.'' The Amazon. in the marketplace is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc.

Stating that customers across nearly 100 percent of India's serviceable pin codes are in their network, he said there has been a significant demand for personal grooming products such as trimmers, shavers, hair removal products as well as wellness products like weighing scales, BP monitors, etc, since last year.

Masks and sanitizers, personal health, and sanitization products are also in high demand, he added.

Bhasin further said since the beginning of lockdown in March-end last year, high demand in categories such as groceries, work-from-home, and online schooling enablers like laptops, phones, smart devices, headphones, furniture, and consumer electronics, among others, have been seen.

Grocery has been one of our fastest-growing categories, he said.

He also informed that with the onset of monsoon, washing machines have witnessed a 1.5 times demand growth compared to March this year, with more than half of the growth coming from non-metros and tier-II towns.

On the size of the e-commerce market in the country at present, Bhasin said it is still in its early stage of evolution and accounts for just 4 percent of the retail consumer.

''However, the sector is already transforming lives and livelihoods, and becoming a key contributor to the country's economic growth,'' he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)