Amazon’s value commerce offering Bazaar has seen an eight-fold year-on-year growth in customers from tier-II and tier-III cities as demand for sharply priced products expands beyond the country’s larger urban centres.
Customers and orders on Bazaar grew five-fold over the past year while its seller base and selection grew three-times, Sameer Lalwani, Head, Amazon Bazaar, said in an interaction with FE. “Customers, especially from what we classify as tier-2, tier-3 India, have grown 8x or 800% y-o-y on the platform,” he said.
Launched in mid-2024, Bazaar, which targets the affordable product segment, now has more than 30 million listed products, all priced below Rs 500, with over 20 million products priced below Rs 300.
Over the past six months, Amazon has also increasingly integrated Bazaar into its platform. Instead of requiring customers to enter a separate Bazaar section, sharply priced products now surface through the regular Amazon shopping experience with a Bazaar tag.
“The minute a customer sees a Bazaar tag, that is an instant visual cue for the sharpest priced items with free delivery,” Lalwani said.
The shift comes as Amazon seeks to broaden its customer base by catering to different forms of online shopping, from convenience-led quick commerce to value-focused shopping. Lalwani said consumers can be value shoppers in one purchase and convenience or premium shoppers in another, making it important for Amazon to serve different demand profiles rather than treat customers based purely on their city classification.
Bazaar’s growth in India is being driven by women and younger consumers seeking affordable products, according to the company. Home and kitchen is currently the fastest-growing broad category, with five- to six-fold year-on-year growth, while women’s fashion, beauty, footwear, handbags and jewellery are also seeing strong demand. Mobile accessories and electronic devices are other key categories in the sub Rs 500 segment.
Unlike quick commerce, however, Bazaar is not built around speed of delivery. The proposition is centred on lower prices and free delivery, with delivery timelines ranging from one or two days to longer periods depending on the seller’s location, inventory model and fulfilment choice.
“Will Bazaar products be available in 10 minutes? Who knows? But I’m not going to speculate that,” Lalwani said, adding that the focus remains on ‘the sharpest prices with free delivery’.
On the seller side, Amazon is trying to lower the cost of participating in value commerce. Lalwani said sellers retain full control over pricing, while Amazon has reduced selling fees for products priced below Rs 1,000 across almost all categories and lowered shipping fees on its Easy Ship network.
Lalwani believes that value commerce can sustain growth without compromising seller or platform economics, arguing that each online shopping model will require a different unit economics playbook.
“If I try to make value commerce available in five minutes, the unit economics may have to look completely different than they look today,” he said.
The company did not disclose Bazaar’s share of Amazon’s overall business or a specific growth milestone for the segment. “We don’t want to be India’s cheapest value commerce destination, we aspire to be the largest, we also aspire to be the most trusted,” Lalwani said.