Amazon Prime Day sale brings Diwali early for Indians, says India head

• In an interview with Business Insider, Amazon India’s Head of Prime Akshay Sahi says the sale is intended to be a ‘big celebration’ like an Indian festival.
• Amazon Prime Day sale on July 15 -16 is a global event where the e-tailer offers discounts and deals.
• Prime is in its third edition in India, although it’s a fifth for them, globally.

The Amazon Prime Day sale, which will last for ‘days’ this time with a 48-hour timeline, is one of its most awaited events. Prime Day is in its third edition in India although its a fifth time they are hosting it, globally.

In India, the e-retail giant faced one challenge – how to make prime day different from the otherwise discount-laden Indian market.

“India is such a sales heavy, deals heavy market. Every one of our competitors has sale events which is further complemented by offline sale events,” Akshay Sahi, Amazon Prime India head, told Business Insider.

So, they intended to turn Prime Day into a festival, make it a celebration. In doing so, the deals that they bring on-board are critical.

“Prime members shop a lot more and the appeal of a Prime-only event is very high with sellers as well. So, we offer the lowest prices of the year, even better than the Diwali sale. We want to create the best celebration for prime members, we look at it this way – can we bring Diwali a little early for prime members,” said Sahi.

From 30 new launches in its first edition to 200 in the second and now, 1000 new product launches in the third, Sahi said that Prime in India has come a long way.

“This year, we have 1000 product launches, out of which more than 500 are from small and medium sized businesses. From Amazon’s launchpad for startups, we have 75 products being launched by startups,” said Sahi.

Amazon Prime’s another top offer is the prime video vertical, which is also a part of the prime day sale. They have 14 new titles releasing, which include seven from regional languages.

Amazon also came up with Virtual Reality Experience zones in nine cities, to provide its consumers a sense of ‘touch-and-feel’. And, it all seems to be working in Amazon’s favour.

“We had the largest number of prime members join the program in the month leading up to prime day in 2018. That gave us a lot of confidence that we are on the right path,” said Sahi.