E-commerce giant Amazon India reported a 30% increase in revenue at its five units—marketplace, transportation, internet, data and payments—for the year ended 31 March even as it narrowed losses by 17%, regulatory filings sourced from business intelligence firm Tofler showed.
Amazon Data Services India Pvt. Ltd is the only entity which reported an annual profit of ₹326.8 crore on a revenue of ₹3,567.3 crore on a standalone basis.
It reported a profit of ₹148.7 crore on revenues of ₹2,553.1 crore in the previous year.
The unit provides data hosting services to related parties, and revenue is recognized over time as services are rendered.
The largest India unit, Amazon Seller Services, which runs the Amazon India marketplace, reported a 32% rise in revenue to ₹21,633 crore from ₹16,378 crore a year ago.
Besides product sales, its revenue is generated from multiple sources, including subscription services, royalties, fees for offering its marketplace to sellers and services such as shipping, advertising and others.
During the year, the marketplace managed to reduce its losses to ₹3,649.2 crore from ₹4,748.1 crore in FY21.
The unit’s expenses rose nearly 19% to ₹23,120 crore, spending ₹6,751.2 crore on delivering orders, compared to ₹6,332 crore in FY21. Its earnings from advertising services increased to ₹4,171.4 crore from ₹2,554.2 crore a year ago.
Ahead of the festive season, Amazon.com Inc’s India arm also decided to halve the fee for new sellers on its platform.
In India, Amazon is the second-largest e-commerce company after Walmart-owned Flipkart, with a gross merchandise value of $18-20 billion and sells more than 170 million products.
But it’s yet to turn profitable in a market where the average order value is below $10 (approximately ₹800), according to a report by US research and wealth management firm Bernstein. India is one of Amazon’s biggest markets outside the US and also one of its fastest growing.
“Besides growth-related investments, profitability has also been impacted by a higher mix of low-margin product categories (e.g., smartphones with sub 5% net margins). Amazon has struggled to scale volumes in higher margin categories such as fashion and beauty and personal care,” the report said.
Last year, Amazon announced a $250 million venture fund for India, focused on bringing the country’s small businesses online after it came under fire from local retailers for its business practices.
Amazon’s other units operating in India include Amazon Internet Services, Amazon Transportation Services, Amazon Data Services and Amazon Pay (India).
Amazon Internet Services arm, the Indian subsidiary of the group that undertakes the resale and marketing of its web cloud services in India, reported a loss of ₹2.3 crore from a profit of ₹18.5 crore a year ago.
However, its revenues jumped 65% to ₹8,981.9 crore in FY22 from ₹5,434.4 crore.
The US e-commerce giant’s local shipping services arm, Amazon Transportation, reported total revenues of ₹4,581 crore in FY22, a 12.6% jump from the year-ago period. Its losses jumped 38% to ₹95 crore in FY22 from ₹68.7 crore in the previous year.
Meanwhile, its payments and financial services distribution arm, Amazon Pay India, reported a 16% jump in revenue to ₹2,052.4 crore in FY22.
The unit’s total losses rose 15% to ₹1,740.8 crore in fiscal 2022 from ₹1,516 crore a year ago.
The US e-commerce giant’s fintech arm runs the Amazon Pay wallet and its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) offerings.
Amazon Pay competes with Google Pay and WhatsApp messaging service app’s WhatsApp Pay in India.