Jeff Bezos might lose some sleep. Documents filed with the Registrar of Companies show that Amazon India's operation registered a loss of Rs 3,572 crore for the year ended March 2016. This was up from the loss of Rs 1,724 crore registered the previous year. All this has not dampened Bezos’ attempt to topple Flipkart, which is still the top e-retailer in the country. Amazon world-wide registered a loss of over Rs 500 million in the same year and this was due to large investments in its Indian arm. The company overtook Snapdeal to reach the second spot and this prompted the Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal to demand government protection against Amazon’s dollar-fueled growth. In the arena of e-retail there is no second place. The winner takes it all and the fight between these two giants is to dominate the sector at any cost. With the government putting in rules pertaining to discounts, winning over clients by offering ridiculously low prices is a thing of the past. However, price variations coupled with excellent delivery services is the key to winning this war of attrition. While this war raged, PayTM, funded by the very successful Alibaba group, the only e-retailer to register profits, covered ground with large cash-back offers. So while Bezos loses some sleep, consumers in the country wake up to tempting offers every day. It doesn’t get better than this.
