US e-commerce giant Amazon has pumped in over Rs 11,400 crore (about $1.5 billion) during FY2019-20 across its marketplace, payments and wholesale business units in India to bolster its position in the country’s burgeoning digital commerce market, according to a report by news agency PTI.
The investments have been made even though most of the Amazon’s business units in India registered losses during the fiscal.
Data analysis from regulatory filings by various Amazon entities showed that Amazon Seller Services, Amazon Wholesale (India), Amazon Pay (India) and Amazon Transportation Services saw their losses adding up to Rs 7,899 crore in FY20 as against a loss of Rs 7,014.5 crore in the preceding fiscal.
Amazon Seller Services, Amazon Wholesale (India), Amazon Pay (India) and Amazon Transportation Services had registered losses in FY20 at Rs 5,849.2 crore, Rs 133.2 crore, Rs 1,868.5 crore and Rs 48.1 crore, respectively.
Amazon Internet Services, which had clocked a net profit of Rs 71.1 crore in FY19, slipped into the red with a loss of Rs 20 lakh in FY20, the data showed.
The e-commerce giant, which has been investing millions of dollars towards promotions, building infrastructure and logistics as it woos customers to shop online, has seen its losses mount on account of higher expenses.
Filings showed that Amazon Pay’s total expenses grew 62 per cent to Rs 3,234.8 crore in FY20, while Amazon Seller Services saw its total expenses rising over 25 per cent to Rs 16,877.1 crore in the said period.
In January this year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had announced $1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online. Previously, the online retail giant had committed $5.5 billion investments in India, one of Amazon’s most important markets outside of the US and a key growth driver.
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