Amazon’s India spending down this year

Amazon’s investment in its India marketplace unit so far this year has only been a third of what it did in 2018. This is the first time Amazon’s yearly investment in India has come down since it set up shop in 2012.

However, the US online retail leader continues to build an omni-channel play by snapping up stakes in some of the largest offline retailers in the country. The firm infused considerable capital last year in expanding its footprint, both in terms of services offered as well as in further strengthening its supply chain to go deeper into India. Amazon’s investments shot up last year as it sought to build its grocery business and the supply chain around that. This year, with the infrastructure already in place, requirements for capital would have been lower. Moreover, with its investments in offline retailers like Future Group, More Retail and Shoppers Stop starting to kick in, the requirement to build a dedicated supply chain might have come down. Amazon spends a large portion of its investment in India on building warehouses and other infrastructure for shipping. Most of the company’s investments in India are towards infrastructure build-out, technology, seller enablement programs and talent.