As Amazon Prime marks a decade in India and gears up for its tenth Prime Day, Akshay Sahi, VP – Prime & Customer Fulfilment Experience, India & Emerging Countries, Amazon, tells BW Retail World how the membership programme has evolved from a fast-delivery service into a comprehensive ecosystem
As Amazon Prime celebrates ten years in India, the membership programme has grown far beyond its original promise of fast deliveries. Today, it encompasses shopping, entertainment, payments, travel benefits and increasingly AI-powered experiences, serving millions of customers across the country. Ahead of the tenth edition of Prime Day, Akshay Sahi, Vice President – Prime & Customer Fulfilment Experience, India & Emerging Countries, Amazon, speaks to BW Retail World about Prime’s journey over the past decade, its expansion across Bharat, the growing role of artificial intelligence, and why delivering “exponential value” continues to be the cornerstone of Amazon’s membership strategy.
Prime has completed ten years in India. What has been the philosophy behind building and sustaining the Prime membership programme?
The philosophy has always been simple—we want Prime members to receive disproportionate value. The programme is designed so that customers receive exponential returns on what they pay for their membership.
In fact, nearly 50 per cent of our Prime members receive almost five times the value of their annual membership fee every year, while our top 10 per cent members receive more than eight times the value of their subscription. That’s how we think about Prime—not as incremental benefits, but as exponential value.
Our belief has always been that if we consistently deliver exceptional value, customers will naturally shop more with Amazon and engage more deeply with the broader Prime ecosystem.
Looking back over the last decade, what have been the biggest learnings as Prime has evolved alongside Indian consumers?
Indian consumers and ecommerce have evolved tremendously over the past ten years, and Prime has been a significant part of that evolution.
A decade ago, online shopping was largely planned and considered. Customers would think carefully before placing an order. Today, shopping has become much more on demand because customers trust the experience. As a Prime member, you no longer worry about whether a product is genuine, whether it will arrive quickly, or whether you’re getting the best deal. Those fundamentals are taken care of.
Prime itself has also evolved. What began as a fast-delivery programme has become a comprehensive membership offering shopping benefits, savings, entertainment through Prime Video, music, payments, travel benefits and much more.
Our objective has always been to integrate Prime seamlessly into customers’ everyday lives, and customer expectations have evolved exactly in that direction.
Prime is seeing deeper adoption beyond metro cities. What’s driving this growth, and how are you tailoring the experience for these markets?
I actually think it’s more useful to look at customer behaviour rather than geography. Whether someone lives in a metro or a smaller town, customers want the same things: great selection, fast delivery, attractive offers and a trusted shopping experience.
Our responsibility is to continue investing in building that experience across the country.
Last year, Amazon invested Rs 2,000 crore in strengthening its operations network, and we’ve announced an additional Rs 2,800 crore investment this year. We’re opening 20 new fulfilment centres, expanding our sortation network and last-mile delivery infrastructure, while also investing heavily in delivery associate safety.
Alongside this, we’re expanding Amazon Now into more than 300 cities and building over 100 urban fulfilment centres to deliver even faster.
Content also plays an important role. Prime Video offers programming in ten Indian languages, and Amazon Music supports multiple regional languages as well. The idea is to build the programme around customer needs rather than expecting customers to adapt to it.
One of our biggest India-first innovations has been introducing multiple Prime membership tiers. Different customers have different needs, so we’ve created plans that offer varying combinations of shopping and entertainment benefits at different price points.
We’ve seen very encouraging results. Around one in five customers who join our lower-tier Prime plans eventually upgrade to the full Prime membership as they experience the value of the service.
Prime has truly become a Bharat phenomenon. During the last Prime Day, customers from 99 per cent of India’s PIN codes placed orders, reflecting just how widely the programme has been adopted.
Prime Day has become one of India’s biggest shopping events. Beyond sales, what strategic role does it play for Amazon?
Prime Day is much more than a high-volume sales event.
Of course, deals and sales remain important, but we’re equally focused on acquiring new Prime members, increasing customer engagement and strengthening long-term relationships.
We evaluate Prime Day not just by transaction volumes, but by how customer behaviour changes after the event. Do customers shop more frequently? Do they engage more with Prime Video or Amazon Music? Does their overall interaction with the Prime ecosystem deepen? These are the metrics that matter most to us.
Last year, Prime members placed nearly 18,000 orders every minute during peak demand—around 50 per cent higher than the previous year. Nearly 60 per cent of orders were delivered within 48 hours, meaning many customers received their purchases before the three-day event had even concluded.
Prime Day allows customers to experience the full strength of the Prime proposition—speed, reliability, selection and value—which ultimately drives long-term loyalty.
As we celebrate the tenth edition of Prime Day, we’re introducing our biggest anniversary offers yet across the widest selection we’ve ever offered.
With increasing competition across ecommerce, quick commerce and subscription services, how does Prime continue to deliver differentiated value while maintaining a sustainable business model?
The answer lies in scale. The more customers trust Amazon with their everyday shopping, the more efficient our operations become. Greater shopping frequency allows us to optimise fulfilment, reduce delivery costs and reinvest those efficiencies into even better customer experiences.
Prime members are our most engaged customers. Once someone becomes a Prime member, their shopping frequency increases nearly fivefold. Customers who also engage with Amazon Now see their shopping frequency increase even further.
We don’t see quick commerce and traditional e-commerce as competing models—they’re complementary. Some purchases require speed, while others require broader selection, deeper research and better comparison. Our job is to offer customers the right balance between speed, selection and value depending on what they need.
Today, Amazon offers thousands of products within minutes through Amazon Now, tens of thousands within hours, over a million products for same-day delivery, more than four million for next-day delivery, and tens of millions more across the broader Prime network.
Ultimately, giving customers the freedom to choose the experience that best suits their needs is what differentiates Prime.
As Prime enters its second decade in India, what will define the next phase of growth?
Some customer expectations never change.
Customers will always want greater selection, faster deliveries, deeper savings, better entertainment and more convenience. Our responsibility is to keep improving across all of these dimensions.
Beyond that, I believe Prime will become even more deeply integrated into everyday life, extending beyond shopping and entertainment into areas such as travel, payments and healthcare.
Artificial intelligence will also play an increasingly important role.
Tools like Rufus, our AI shopping assistant, already help customers discover products more effectively across Amazon’s vast selection. AI is also helping us build better experiences for sellers, delivery partners and vendors, while making product discovery more personalised for every customer.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, Prime will evolve alongside them, always with trust and reliability at its core.
Finally, what can Prime members look forward to in the coming years?
Customers can expect Prime to become bigger, better and even more relevant to their everyday lives.
We’ll continue investing in exclusive member offers, travel benefits, payment partnerships and additional savings across the ecosystem.
Our focus remains unchanged—to continuously increase the value customers receive from their Prime membership and make Prime an indispensable part of everyday life.
