Amazon India's Harsh Goyal on why should customers go for Amazon Fresh in the age of quick commerce

The building of dark store networks around the country has been at the core of the success of quick commerce players. These dark stores resembling modern-day retail supermarkets don't allow customers to walk in. In India, Amazon seems to have abandoned quick commerce for now as it probably does not make sense for them to target a 10–15 per cent market of the already small grocery business. That is why perhaps they have moved their campaign to planned purchases.

"Amazon Fresh’s value proposition is not just speed but equally an extensive range of daily consumption products, incredible savings for consumers and superior quality of fruits and vegetables, delivered to customers in 2-4 hour slots. Regardless, Amazon is continuously improving the speed at which we deliver orders to customers," says Harsh Goyal, Director, Grocery, Amazon India.

The character ‘Ghanshyaam’, played by Manoj Bajpayee in the Amazon Fresh ad campaigns - ‘Nahi toh Mehenga Padega’, embodies the problem that a common person has with buying groceries online. "Basis our insights and research, consumers are primarily looking for value and quality in grocery items. Our recent ad campaign highlights both these aspects in a comical act where in a hurry to get groceries, the customer misses out on savings and good quality," adds Goyal.

Goyal further discusses how technology plays a critical role at every stage of fresh supply chain, starting from collection centres where one buys directly from farmers and pay them quickly, to an end-to-end temperature-controlled supply chain and more.

Edited excerpts:

Can you take us through the genesis and ideation of the campaign along with the key learnings? What was the rationale behind partnering with Manoj Bajpayee?

The relatable character ‘Ghanshyaam’, played by Manoj Bajpayee in our Amazon Fresh ad campaigns - ‘Nahi toh Mehenga Padega’, embodies the problem that a common person has with buying groceries online. Basis our insights and research, consumers are primarily looking for value and quality in grocery items. Our recent ad campaign highlights both these aspects in a comical act where in a hurry to get groceries, the customer misses out on savings and good quality.

The approach followed while developing the campaign focused on captivating the audience and driving home a crucial message that will resonate with the viewers long after they’ve watched it. Amazon Fresh offers consumers wide selection, incredible savings via bank offers and cashbacks, no delivery fee and excellent quality of fruits and vegetables.

What are some interesting market trends and consumer insights that you are observing? How is Amazon Fresh leveraging them?

During this mango season, we've observed significant shifts in market trends and consumer preferences on Amazon Fresh. Our top-selling mango varieties include Banganpalli, Ratnagiri Alphonso, Sindhura, Totapuri, and Kesar, with Banganpalli emerging as a versatile favorite across India. We're also seeing growing interest in regional specialties such as Gulabkhas and Chinnarasalu, highlighting a broader consumer inclination towards exploring unique and local flavors.

Among cities, Bangalore emerged as the king of mangoes in metros, while Ahmedabad and Pune are showing strong engagement in non-metro areas. We've also noticed an uptick in demand for ice creams and dairy beverages, with a 20% and 33% increase in customer base for these categories, respectively. At Amazon Fresh, we leverage consumer insights to continually enhance our offerings, curating thematic stores such as Mango, IPL, and summer store and cater to diverse tastes and preferences, ensuring exceptional quality, value, and convenience for our customers.

In the age of quick commerce, where we are getting our essentials within 10-20 minutes, why should a customer opt for Amazon Fresh?

Grocery is a massive market and we believe various formats will co-exist, serving different consumer needs. For example, Amazon Fresh’s value proposition is not just speed but equally an extensive range of daily consumption products, incredible savings for consumers and superior quality of fruits and vegetables, delivered to customers in 2-4 hour slots. Regardless, Amazon is continuously improving the speed at which we deliver orders to customers. Amazon delivers millions of items to customers on the same day, which is by far the largest selection delivered same day in India.

How is Amazon Fresh leveraging AI? How is it evolving and innovating its products?

We believe technology plays a critical role at every stage of fresh supply chain, starting from collection centres where we buy directly from farmers and pay them quickly, to an end-to-end temperature-controlled supply chain. We have shelf monitoring cameras which feed into ML models and help us spot quality defects. At Amazon we have built an ecosystem through a team of qualified agronomists offering agri-tech expertise to registered farmer partners for better farm yield and improved product quality.

The agronomy services is an application, interface through machine learning and computer-vision based algorithms that simplify supply chain processes, helps farmers to identify defects (rotting, spots, cuts, mould) in fruits and vegetables, and reduces wastage of produce. All the fresh produce is sourced directly from farmers registered with Amazon sellers at the collection centre and after a thorough quality inspection, is dispatched to the processing centres.

The fresh produce is then sorted, graded, and hygienically packed in different sizes at the processing centres and dispatched to Amazon Fresh fulfilment centres located closer to customers, to fulfil delivery promises. We will keep inventing to improve product quality and supply chain efficiency to ensure our customers receive the best quality produce.

Where is the business coming from the most?

The online grocery retail market is witnessing a rapid growth rate in the Indian metropolitans and other emerging smart cities. While semi-urban areas and emerging cities are expected to drive the next wave of value growth owing to the rapid rate of urbanization, rural demand is likely to continue to drive volume growth. We see maximum demand coming in from metros, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, and non-metros such as Ahmedabad, Pune, Jaipur, and others.

The metros have been seeing a rise in demand for diverse product categories including pet food, hair care and styling products, make up and baby care products like diapers. We're also observing a pronounced trend towards occasion-based and seasonal purchasing, particularly evident in categories such as snacks and beverages, baking supplies, pasta, and cereals. Hence, to make it easier for customers to discover the selection and enjoy the best value, we keep launching thematic stores such as Mango, Summer, IPL, and others.