The scope and reach of e-commerce websites like Amazon has been skyrocketing during these past few months because of the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the world. India witnessed a digital revolution which would otherwise have taken 2-5 years, so it is safe to say that everything has its pros and cons, the pandemic had its own.
Now, e-commerce giant Amazon held its Prime Day Sale in August this year, where everyone was expecting a decline in sales because most people were house arrested during the nationwide lockdown, many got unemployed and some were even facing tragic losses. But, the exact opposite happened.
During this year’s Prime Day Sale, Amazon recorded that the number of their Prime subscriptions had doubled in India ahead of the Prime Day Sale which was held in August. However, it was only India that could take benefit of the Prime Day Sale in August, while the annual event was shifted to October for the rest of the world.
According to a statement by Amazon’s spokesperson, between 6-7 August when the Prime Day Sale in India went live, the company witnessed that twice as many Amazon customers in India bought the paid subscription to become Prime members and take benefit of the Prime Day Sale compared to last year’s records.
Amazon does not disclose a specific geographical bifurcation on the number of their Prime subscribers and overall customers, but a report by BigTech reveals that Amazon has a total number of over 160 million subscribers and the Prime user base is expected to rise to over 200 million by the end of 2020. The international sales of the e-commerce giant with respect to the United States have exceeded and the participation from Indian customers has been significant.
Prime subscription is a good deal as it enables access to Amazon’s Audio and Video streaming services along with an incentive of receiving orders on priority within 1-2 business days.
The pandemic has significantly boosted the use of internet and e-commerce websites, especially in India as it was already under a digital transition phase. Amazon has certainly benefited from this as their sales have gone up by 45% in these past two quarters. This percentage amounts to an approximate profit value of over USD 420 million.
Compared to 2019 when the e-commerce business suffered great losses of $380 million and $600 million in September and June quarters, respectively.
Amazon mentioned in a statement that this quarter, the company has recorded a profit of over 35% with an overall sale close to over $95 billion during the “Sale” quarter as compared to 2019. Amazon has recorded an overall profit of up to $7 billion in 2020 compared to last year.
