Amazon Great Indian Sale India Sets New Records, Drives Pay and Prime Usage

Amazon's bet to lure Indians with its big-profile sales is chugging along smoothly in India. The most recent of it -- the four-day Amazon Great Indian Sale, which it concluded on August 12 -- saw a record number for smartphones sales, the company said Monday, adding that the first day was its biggest day in terms of sales this year.

The first day of sale, August 9, saw the company sell more smartphones units than any other day this year. In particular, Apple's iPhone models attracted a lot of attention. Several iPhone models were selling with major discounts on the e-commerce website. In comparison to a usual business day, Amazon India said it sold 40 times more iPhone units on first day of the sale.

These sales helped Amazon drive momentum and engagement to several of its other services. Amazon Pay, the payments service from the company, saw 20 times more traction during the sales, while plenty of new users bought a Prime subscription service. As we reported recently, Amazon India has been betting big on smartphone sales to drive its other businesses as well.

Coming back to smartphones, Samsung smartphones saw a 13X jump, while Honor reported seeing 10 times more unit sales. Similarly, Motorola and Lenovo saw a 9X jump, BlackBerry, which recently started selling the KEYone smartphone observed a 10X jump, and OnePlus, whose recently launched OnePlus 5 smartphone was the best selling product on Prime Day, saw a 6X jump in their respective sales. The entire lot of Xiaomi's Redmi 4A units were sold under one minute, Amazon India said, without disclosing the number of units that were up for grabs.

The growth comes as Amazon scales its reach in India to include small cities and towns such as Purnia and Banka. During the sales, the company said it saw twice as many customers purchasing from tier 2, 3, and below geographies than they do on any typical business day.

TVs and large appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators also observed a positive spike in sales. Amazon India said it moved ten times more inventory than it does on any typical day. Fashion accessories and apparel also fared well.

"With Prime continuing to be our top selling product and Amazon Pay seeing 20X growth in top ups, customers continue to vote for the trust and convenience of shopping on Amazon.in" Manish Tiwary, vice president of category management at the ecommerce giant said in a statement.

Introduction and aggressive availability of EMIs across categories also helped the company drive more engagement on the website, as people saw a more flexible pay to pay for products.