Amazon has almost closed the gap with Flipkart’s standalone sales in 2017, behind in GMV market share by less than 1% point in 2017 from 5% points in 2016. However, Flipkart still leads as a group with Myntra and Jabong.
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While Flipkart leads in fashion and smartphones, Amazon has taken lead in appliances, consumer electronics, and groceries, which builds platform stickiness.
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Amazon is also emerging as a clear leader among metro consumers.
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After surpassing Flipkart in 2016 for the first time (in metropolitan user preference), Amazon has strengthened its position as metropolitan Indian consumers’ preferred online retail destination and is aggressively closing the gap with Flipkart to become the single-largest online retailer in India in terms of sales.
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Overall, the online retail sector saw sales worth $19.6 billion in 2017 which is expected to grow to $27 billion in 2018.
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Flipkart’s standalone market share was 31.9%, while Amazon’s was 31.1%
However, Flipkart has vehemently dismissed the report.
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“The findings of this survey are incorrect and do not reflect ground realities. Flipkart is the undisputed leader in Indian ecommerce with 60% overall market share,” a Flipkart spokesperson said.
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Amazon said it has “earned customer trust in less than five years to become the destination of choice for customers all over India to shop for their various needs everyday across hundreds of categories.”
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Flipkart dominates the fashion segment and the smartphone category. Flipkart said this week that it had crossed $1billion in sales in the segment, even beating its own group company Myntra.
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In the smartphone segment, Flipkart grew its market share of online smartphone shipments to 51% in 2017, from 44% the year before, while Amazon’s increased marginally to 33% in 2017 from 31%.
However, Amazon is aggressively pushing the grocery segment, seeing sales of $180-$200 million in 2017.