Amazon India’s marketplace reports Rs 11,028 cr in FY20 revenue, losses up 3% while expenses widen 25%

Amazon Seller Services – the marketplace arm of Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce business in India has reported a 42 per cent jump in its revenue and a 3 per cent increase in losses for the financial year (FY) 2019-20 from the preceding FY2018-19. The revenue for Amazon, which primarily competes with Walmart-owned Flipkart apart from Alibaba and SoftBank backed Paytm Mall, Snapdeal, and vertical marketplaces such as BigBasket, Grofers, and JioMart in grocery and Myntra in the fashion segment, stood at Rs 11,028 crore, up from Rs 7,777 crore in FY19. The net loss increased from Rs 5,685 crore in FY19 to Rs 5,849 crore in FY20. Expenses for the company were also up 25 per cent from Rs 13,463 crore to Rs 16,877 crore during the said period with the majority 78 per cent share of ‘other expenses’ worth Rs 13,296 crore.

Comments from Amazon Seller Services on FY20 performance will be added here as and when shared by the company in response to an email query.

“The Company continues to invest in, opening new fulfillment centers, and technology advancement…The Company also continues to invest on launching new products and services for its customers and sellers. The Company is confident on its future growth,” Amazon Seller Services said in its regulatory filing source from business intelligence platform Tofler. It had increased its authorised share capital from Rs 31,000 crore as on March 31, 2019 to Rs 60,000 crore as on March 31, 2020.

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Within other expenses, the company spent Rs 2,640 crore in FY20 on advertising and sales promotion up from Rs 2,330 crore in FY19. Expenses on delivery charges were also up from Rs 3,662 crore in FY19 to Rs 4,603 crore in FY20. Other key expenses included Rs 1,219 crore with respect to payment processor fees and Rs 1,117 crore towards reimbursement for damages of fulfilled inventories.

Amazon has been fighting a legal battle with Future Retail over the latter’s Rs 24,713 crore asset sale deal with Reliance. The Delhi High Court had earlier this week declined to grant an interim injunction to Future Retail’s plea to restrain restraining Amazon from writing to Sebi, CCI, and other authorities with respect to the arbitral order against the asset sale deal. The battle emphasizes the potential of India’s e-commerce market reaching $99 billion in size by 2024, according to Goldman Sachs. There is probably no other major economy in the world offering that level of scale. The e-commerce segment is currently merely 1.6 per cent of the total retail sales, according to a 2019 World Bank Group report.