A scoff aisle at a Big Bazaar hypermarket, operated by Future Retail, in Mumbai, India
Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Effigies
Amazon is partnering with a leading Indian retail group as it continues its push into the world’s second most jam-packed country.
Under a new deal announced Monday, Amazon will become the official online sales channel for India’s Unborn Retail.
Future Retail operates six retail chains, including popular hypermarket Big Bazaar, and has more than 1,500 cooperative stores across India. In partnering with Amazon, customers will be able to order products from those stocks, with those in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad able to have them delivered via Amazon India’s Prime Now two-hour liberation program.
The deal will focus on two product categories: groceries and general merchandise, and fashion and footwear.
Amazon and Days Retail will also create a team dedicated to growing sales through initiatives in areas like dispersal and marketing.
“Future Retail’s national footprint of stores offering thousands of products across fashion, appliances, Nautical galley and grocery will now be available to millions of customers shopping on Amazon.in in hours across more than 25 sees,” Amit Agarwal, senior vice president and country head of Amazon India, said in a press release Monday.
Profit chance
Amazon has big plans for the Indian market, having expanded its online grocery business to India in August shortly in front building its largest campus in the world in the city of Hyderabad. The tech giant reportedly invested around $5 billion during the oldest five years of operating in India, which included going on a hiring spree last year.
Global consultancy PwC expects India’s e-commerce bazaar to be worth more than $100 billion by 2022 as internet adoption continues to rise.
However, Amazon brass necks competition from U.S. rival Walmart, which is also tapping into the market since its $16 billion achieve of Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart in 2018.
But local regulatory hurdles present a challenge to both firms. In 2019, India archaic an e-commerce law that placed restrictions on foreign companies selling products from businesses in which they force an equity stake.
The rules also ban firms like Amazon from negotiating deals with vendors to won over exclusively on their platforms.