Amazon's combined FY19 losses in India businesses at over Rs 7,000 cr

The e-commerce giant is expecting its December-quarter net sales to be between $80 billion and $86.5 billion, 11-20% higher than the year-ago period

E-commerce giant Amazon has faced losses in several of its business entities in India, such as seller services, wholesale, transportation services and digital payments, for the 2018-19 financial year. The combined losses of these entities stand at over Rs 7,000 crore.

The company’s online marketplace arm, Amazon Seller Services Private Limited, reported a net loss of Rs 5,685 crore for the financial year, according to data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler. This is a 9.5 per cent decrease from last financial year, even as its revenue has jumped 55 per cent during the period to Rs 7,778 crore.

This year, Amazon stepped up its investment in India and pumped Rs 2,800 crore into the Amazon Seller Services marketplace. The fresh investment came at a time when the Seattle-headquartered firm had signed off from China. The funding was expected to help Amazon take on Walmart-owned Flipkart, with which it is in a fierce battle for dominance in India’s online retail market.

Amazon Wholesale India Private Limited, the wholesale B2B arm of the e-commerce firm, reported a revenue of Rs 11,250 crore, 8 per cent lower than it did for last financial year. The company’s net loss stood at Rs 141 crore, a rise of 7 per cent over 2017-18.

Amazon Transportation Services Private Limited reported a net loss of Rs 27.5 crore for the financial year, an 11 per cent increase from a year earlier, on a revenue of Rs 2,079 crore, which was 31 per cent more than last financial year.

The net loss of Amazon Pay India Private Limited, the digital payments arm of the online retail giant, stood at Rs 1,160 crore, 247 per cent more than last financial year, even as its revenue jumped 112 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 835 crore. This entity is tapping India's booming digital payments market and competing with Walmart-owned PhonePe, Alibaba-backed Paytm, and Google's mobile payment service Google Pay.

Amazon is expecting its December quarter (Q4) revenue to also be low as the Diwali festive season in India extended over two quarters. Other factors expected to affect its sales were the company’s acquisition of Whole Foods and Souq, said Amazon Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer Brian T Olsavsky.

Amazon said it was expecting its net sales during the December quarter to be between $80 billion and $86.5 billion, 11-20 per cent higher than the corresponding quarter last financial year.