India Finance News

Now, Amazon to shut its wholesale distribution business in India – Economic Times

US-based ecommerce giant Amazon will shut down its wholesale distribution business – Amazon Distribution – in India. Amazon operates this business from Bengaluru, Hubballi and Mysuru.

This is the third business that Amazon said it would shut down in the country in the past week.

“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Distribution, our wholesale ecommerce website for small neighbourhood stores around Bengaluru, Mysore and Hubli,” the company said in a statement.

Amazon Distribution is different from its business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce marketplace Amazon Business, which operates on a marketplace model with third-party sellers.
“We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing this programme in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners and we are supporting our affected employees during this transition,” it said.

It will continue to invest in its core ecommerce business in categories such as grocery, smartphones and consumer electronics, fashion and beauty, and in Amazon Business, the company added.

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Business daily Business Standard was the first to report the development on Monday.

ET reported on November 26 that Amazon India had decided to
shut its food delivery business Amazon Foods by the end of the year. It is also
shutting down its edtech business, Amazon Academy.

The decisions come at a time when the internet retail giant is facing challenges at a global level as the ongoing economic slowdown and receding pandemic have hit its ecommerce business. The company is laying off over 10,000 workers globally and hundreds of employees have been affected in India,
ET reported on November 16.

In September, research firm Bernstein published a report that was critical of Amazon India, saying that the company’s performance in the country was “mixed”, with continued losses despite pumping in $6.5 billion.

While the Amazon India marketplace, Amazon Seller Services, was able to cut losses by almost 23% to Rs 3,649 crore in FY22, losses at its other two businesses – payments and logistics – have widened.

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