The company, which has its headquarters in Seattle, sees India as one of the world’s fastest-growing retail markets, especially in the e-commerce segment. Amazon and Walmart Inc., another US-based retail giant, are both ambitiously pushing to carve out separate spaces for themselves in India’s huge retail space.
“E-commerce is so small in India relative to the total consumption, less than 3 percent,” the report quoted Amazon’s country manager for India, Amit Agarwal.
The new campus in Hyderabad has taken more than three years to build. This is the first campus owned by Amazon outside the United States.
The 1.8 million square feet of office space will accommodate 15,000 workers. John Schoettler, Amazon’s Vice-President for Global Real Estate and Facilities, said the campus is the technology and retail giant’s largest in the world outside the US and can be expanded further. Amazon intends to use the facility to build on its existing worldwide services.
Amazon began retail operations in India in 2013. In the six years since, the company has expanded existing offerings and added new services to boost its sales in the country. This includes offering Bollywood originals as part of its Prime Video loyalty program. Amazon Prime Video membership in India has doubled in the past 18 months, according to Agarwal.
Amazon is also in negotiations to buy a 10 percent stake in Future Retail, one of India’s largest brick and mortar retailers, people familiar with the development said.
The company is also in talks with multiple food companies to deliver food to customers., local media reports said.
Amazon sees Walmart as its main competitor in India’s e-commerce segment. Last year, Walmart spent $16 billion to buy India’s biggest start-up retailer Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has so far pledged $5.5 billion for the company's India operations.