Bharat starts festive rush for Amazon

Bengaluru: Consumers from non-metro cities and users shopping on Hindi interface are helping e-commerce majors like Amazon to kick off its annual flagship sale event with growth momentum amid sombre macro-economic trends.
According to Amazon India head Amit Agarwal, in the first 36 hours of its annual sale that started on Sunday, including the 12-hour early access for Prime users from Saturday afternoon, the company has seen a record number of new Prime subscription sign-ups in a single day in the country. Interestingly, 66% of Amazon’s Prime subscribers, who shopped were from non-metro markets. Since its launch in 2016, Prime has become popular in urban areas.
This comes at a time when e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart have been focusing on the next set of internet users from beyond the top 10 cities to drive sales growth. Agarwal told TOI that 90% of the most viewed products on Amazon were translated in Hindi, signifying the growing importance of local languages in driving new customer growth.