Amazon India has applied for a semi-closed wallet licence with the RBI to build its presence in the payment space. It is expected that a Central Bank Committee will review the application next month. And soon after the approval, Amazon will look forward to open up the wallet for third-party platform as well.
The e-commerce giant is planning to introduce its digital wallet service by mid-year. To rev up this business, Amazon India is also looking forward to acquire payments companies. The etailer’s payments business will be headed by former Citibanker Sriraman Jagannathan, who joined Amazon India earlier this year. It is expected that he will helm the digital wallet vertical.
Amazon Asia Pacific Resources incorporated a subsidiary, Amazon Online Distribution Services, on July 04, 2011 and under the same name it has applied for the wallet licence. AODS started offering payments logistics and services, allowing merchants to sell through their own websites using Pay With Amazon in September last year. The Amazon India marketplace is run by Amazon Seller Services.
Just like Amazon, many other etailers have also launched their own wallets to build a larger payment business. Some of the major players are Flipkart, Ola, Paytm, Snapdeal, Mobikwik, Citrus Pay and Oxigen.
According to the study, Amazon India had the highest overall traffic during its sale period, with peak being 14.7 million visitors on Day 1 (Oct 1, 2016), suggesting an earlier mover advantage
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