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.
