Amazon reaps rich returns in rural Tamil Nadu

The first sale event of 2017, which concluded on Monday, managed to set new benchmarks – in terms of daily units sold, number of cashless transactions and the adoption of the e-tailer’s Prime service. Among the highlights of this sale was the traction seen in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India, including a city from Tamil Nadu. Remarkable new customer growth was witnessed in Tier-3 towns such as Virudhunagar - 630 per cent, Patiala - 1084 per cent, Sambalpur- 475 per cent and Kolhapur - 400 per cent among others, according to a release. 

The company also revealed that the new customer acquisition rate matched the rate seen during the peak Deepavali shopping season. Sales volume witnessed over 185 per cent growth as compared to a normal day while the growth was even more stronger in Tier 2 and Tier 3 geographies with 200 per cent surge in sales. Amit Agarwal, VP and Country Head, Amazon India said, “The significant momentum building upon our already triple digit year over year growth rate, and strong new customer growth with preference for Prime, strengthens our belief that customers across India are choosing us to find, discover, and buy online.”

He adds, “We are excited by the new benchmarks set for daily units,  cashless payments using Amazon Pay, and Prime.” 

The statement reveals that the e-tailer’s shopping app continues to maintain its leadership position as one of the most downloaded shopping apps in the country. Surpassing the peak Diwali shopping season, the e-tailer’s assisted shopping program Project Udaan continued to lead the customer adoption growth with 50X growth as against a normal day. 

The demonetisation drive has also ushered in a new generation of buyers, who are at ease going the cashless way. The company’s growth in cashless payments was indicative of the same as more number of customers chose cashless transactions than ever before. There was significant growth in Amazon Pay balance usage with 30X customers loading money into the Amazon Pay balance as compared to a normal day. The percentage of new customers who adopted Amazon Pay grew by 360%.