Amazon is ramping up investments in faster delivery and fulfillment infrastructure to strengthen its position across both e-commerce and emerging quick commerce segments.
Amazon’s Siddharth Bhagat, Director, Amazon Fashion & Beauty India, believes the company is committed to staying relevant across customer needs whether it’s a planned purchase or an impulse one. “Our philosophy is to keep pushing ourselves to be the best choice for both customers and sellers until there’s no better alternative,” he says.
He explains that while same-day and next-day deliveries have long been available in Tier-1 cities, the focus now is on expanding that access by setting up more fulfillment centers and strengthening the transportation network. Quick commerce, he acknowledges, is gaining traction for “I-need-it-now” categories, but says that in areas like premium fashion and luxury beauty—where customers want more options and spend more time deciding—traditional e-commerce will continue to play a dominant role.
In an interaction with Outlook Business, Bhagat, talks about Amazon's focus on Gen Z consumers, the rise of gender-neutral and trend-driven fashion, partnerships with D2C brands, the success of its next-gen store, and category-wise trends in fashion, beauty, and accessories. He also discusses how Indian and global brands are responding to evolving customer preferences, the increasing demand from Tier 2 and 3 cities, and the growing popularity of subcategories like analog watches, luxury beauty, and everyday fashion jewelry.
Edited Excerpts:
Premium categories seem to be gaining traction on Amazon. How are you focusing on this segment, and do you expect it to drive demand for higher ticket items?
A. We are actually seeing a very notable surge in the demand for premium fashion and beauty. A lot of consumers are turning to online platforms for their purchases of premium brands. Interestingly, we’re seeing much more demand coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where earlier consumers couldn’t really access these products. But now, with increasing online and internet penetration across India, there’s a significant democratization happening in the premium segment.
Consumers are now able to find all the international brands that were once aspirational—brands they could earlier access only when they were traveling abroad—easily available on Amazon. We partner very closely with brands and sellers to ensure consumers can get these products in a very convenient manner, with fast and doorstep deliveries. In terms of growth, we’re seeing upwards of 45% growth in the premium segment that we operate in.
You also touched upon international brands earlier. In other categories like chocolates, we’ve seen several global brands entering the Indian market via quick commerce or e-commerce platforms. Are you observing a similar trend in fashion as well?
Yes, we are definitely seeing a lot of brands preferring to start online first. That’s mainly because they get pan-India reach through us—we serve 100% of the serviceable pin codes in the country.
Currently, we have over 10 lakh products available on same-day delivery for our Prime consumers at no extra cost, and more than 40 lakh on next-day delivery, which is massive if you think about it. Because of that kind of reach, many brands view us as a great partner for launching in India. For example, take Korean beauty—many of these brands don’t yet have an offline presence in India. So, they actually choose to launch online first, and Amazon has been one of their biggest partners in doing that. They’ve seen great success in reaching the right audience through us. So we’ve launched big brands like Skin 1004, COSRX—they’re all kind of launching some exclusive lines. Some of them started with us. Now we have more than 48—about 50—Korean brands that are growing really well on Amazon.
Along with premiumization, are you also focusing on affordability?
So, through the Amazon Premium Edit, our focus is to make sure that we’re addressing the growing aspirations for premium products that people have in India. As I mentioned, our vision is to democratize access to global fashion and beauty, and to make sure consumers are able to buy a lot of these products with confidence and ease—making sure authenticity and convenience are the cornerstones of this business as we build it.
Now, as we build this selection, as you rightly mentioned, affordability is something we also need to enable for our consumers. That’s where we’ve introduced a lot of flexible payment options—whether it's no-cost EMI, bank offers, Amazon Pay Later. And many of these products also fall under different zones of the value segment that consumers look for.
So, if people are looking for value-driven deals, that’s available. If there are some price-conscious customers who want entry-level ranges in some of these premium brands, that’s also available. During specific events, consumers also get access to a lot of deals. So, we’re working across the entire spectrum to ensure it’s a well-rounded experience for our customers.
Are you seeing rising demand from Tier 2 cities—are there expansion plans in place, and can you share any broad numbers around this growth?
In terms of reach, we actually already cover 100% of the pin codes. Right now, the focus is to make sure we’re reaching our customers even faster.We have a large selection that’s already available for same-day delivery to our consumers. There’s upwards of 40 lakh selection that is available next-day to our consumers.
But a data point that would really give you a sense is that today, about 65% of our orders and about 85% of our new customers are actually from Tier 2, 3, and 4 geographies, right?
And with us making sure that we’re reaching the entire consumer base—and the investments we’re making in terms of voice, video capabilities, and building regional language capabilities—we believe the next set of growth, or the next 100–200 million customers, would actually come from Tier 2, 3, and 4 geographies of India.
What steps are you taking with regards to faster delivery?
As a Prime customer, you get unlimited free same-day and next-day deliveries. Our focus is on expanding access to same-day delivery for more customers. We're making significant investments in building infrastructure—setting up fulfillment centers across the country. The more centers we have, the more we can support SMEs and sellers by allowing them to place their inventory closer to customers.
We're also investing heavily in our transportation network to ensure reliable delivery. In Tier-1 cities, same-day and next-day deliveries have always been available, but the goal now is to expand that footprint further through our fulfillment infrastructure.
Do you think platforms like Amazon will face competition from Quick Commerce in the fashion segment? Or will some categories remain exclusive to traditional e-commerce?
Yes, as you rightly pointed out, Quick Commerce is gaining traction—especially in impulse-driven, “I need it now” categories. But, our core focus is listening to customers. Selection is the foundation of how we build our business.
Our top priority is ensuring that every brand our customers are looking for is available on Amazon. We're also investing heavily in personalization and content—making the customer journey more tailored. We’re leveraging AI to help consumers discover and decide better.
When it comes to categories like premium fashion, occasion wear, luxury beauty, and even footwear—these are more considered purchases. Customers want more options, size availability, and trusted brands. These are areas where e-commerce continues to play a key role.
E-commerce will also complement Quick Commerce in more instantaneous purchase categories. We’re working with brands to increase delivery speed and have also made our own foray into Quick Commerce. These two will coexist, ensuring we stay relevant for every customer need.
So based on what you said, it’s fair to say that certain categories will remain more aligned with e-commerce, right?
It’s tough to predict the future precisely. But what we do see is that for some categories, customers spend more time on product pages, using features like size charts. We've invested in building standardized size charts across brands and closely track customer engagement.
Another example is our skincare analyzer—an AI model that considers customer concerns, purchase history, and trending products to recommend the best options. In such categories, where thoughtful decision-making is involved, e-commerce will continue to have a strong role.
On the other hand, products that customers need urgently—like soaps or face washes—see a spike in conversions when offered with same-day delivery. That’s where faster delivery really drives impact.
For higher-end items like luxury watches and premium luggage, customers still prefer the e-commerce route. At Amazon, our philosophy is to keep pushing ourselves to be the best choice for both customers and sellers—until there’s no better alternative. So the goal remains to consistently deliver the best experience possible—for everyone involved.
Now, coming to Gen Z—there’s a lot happening with Gen Z emerging as a category. There are also a lot of gender-neutral clothes gaining attention. Just wanted to understand: with them emerging as a category, have you tied up with new brands? Has there been any change in strategy, or any new patterns you’re observing among buyers?
That’s actually one of those discussion points we spend a lot of time on. Gen Z overall is a big focus area for us.
The key thing with Gen Z is that they follow the global fashion landscape closely. They’re more inclined to explore what’s available around the world. Social media has a massive impact on them—they’re exposed to every trend out there.
So that really keeps us on our toes. We partner very closely with a lot of brands, especially D2C brands that are doing great in this space. One of the things we identified and worked on early was launching a next-gen store—a curated selection specifically for Gen Z customers.
We now have about 340 brands and roughly 2 million products curated for Gen Z. Since launch, we’ve seen a 3x increase in our Gen Z customer base, and the overall consumers from that store have increased 4x in Tier 2 cities.
Any new categories you’re planning to add? Or will the focus remain on existing ones?
In terms of categories, there’s nothing new we’re working on right now. But as I mentioned, we’re launching a lot of new brands from across the world into India.
There’s a strong focus on ensuring our premium selection continues to perform well. Gen Z trends are already contributing to this. Outside of that, in terms of subcategories, Luxury Beauty is doing quite well for us. Premium luggage is performing strongly, and we’ll continue pushing that. Interestingly, analog watches are making a big comeback—especially in the premium segment, where we’re seeing good traction.
