Amazon is closing in on Flipkart. Jeff Bezos describes how he got there

Amazon was a late entrant in India, coming in years after homegrown rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal had set up shop in the country. In 2013, when Jeff Bezos’ brainchild decided to take on the country, Amazon had already been burnt in China, and success in India was more important than ever to boost growth.

Three years on, while Flipkart is still thought to be leading in gross merchandise values, Amazon is nipping at its heels and could catch up any moment, say analysts. A recent RedSeer Consulting study said Amazon India already has the highest customer loyalty scores among all major ecommerce firms in the country.

See: Why Amazon needs to win in India, ASAP

Etailing India estimates that the top five ecommerce companies in India hold about 80 percent of the market. Of that, Flipkart had a 50 percent market share about two months ago.
“But we think this number is changing quickly, and Amazon and Flipkart are not more than a few percentages away from each other currently,” founder Ashish Jhalani told Tech in Asia.

At Recode’s Code Conference, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, talked about how his team is conquering the India market.

1. Build what isn’t available

In the United States, Amazon leveraged a lot of existing infrastructure like roads and postal services, making his journey easier and less costly, Bezos said. In India, the ecommerce maverick decide not to depend on existing platforms and instead build its own. “In India we do most of our last mile transportation ourselves. It wouldn’t be our first choice of how to do it, but it’s the only choice.”

2. Smart warehousing

Where elsewhere in the world Amazon is known for its gigantic warehouses, in India, the company has gone smaller. That allows Amazon to have more warehouses at smaller distances from each other, enabling them to cut through the country’s paralyzing traffic. “We try to travel shorter distances, so we try to open many more smaller fulfillment centers. We are kind of adapting to the local model,” Bezos said.

3. Not a copy of China

4. Going local with a vengeance

Citing it as one of the top-level learnings from China, Bezos said that Amazon has done a “lot more local market customization in India.” While Amazon’s strategy in China was mostly to roll out what had worked well for it in other international markets, Bezos asked his team in India to be “fast-acting cowboys instead of calm clear-headed computer scientists” in order to win. Amazon launched a variety of customizations like cash on delivery, seller universities, and community pick-up points in the country to help gain popularity.