When Amazon reported net sales of $107 billion for 2015, it had fantastic growth in North America to thank. Over the past three years, the Seattle-based company, already the dominant force in the region, has added $22 billion in sales in North America. Last year the market contributed 60 percent of all of its sales.
Overseas, the company (which we ranked no. 1 on our 2016 list of the 50 Smartest Companies) has been selling more too, but making less money doing so. In part, profits have been reduced by currency differences, but Amazon has also been carrying out an expensive plan to expand its fulfillment capacity around the world.
That global investing is starting to pay off in India, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Amazon has said it would invest $5 billion in the market, which today has only 40 million online shoppers out of a population of 1.2 billion. As a result, it’s now gaining on local rival Flipkart Internet, long the largest online retailer in India.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.