We’ll build something differentiated at scale — and then make money: Amazon India head Samir Kumar on profitability

Amazon will build something differentiated that has scale, once we get to scale, we want to make money: India head Samir Kumar on profitability

Amazon's approach to profitability in India remains anchored in building differentiated businesses at scale before aggressively pursuing earnings, India country head Samir Kumar told Moneycontrol, as scrutiny on margins and financial sustainability across India’s ecommerce market continues to intensify.

"It's always been there. We are not a non-profit. We have always built our businesses with that in mind. But the thing that we do is—first, we want to build something that is differentiated and has scale. And when it gets to scale, we want to make money. That has been the case for us throughout our existence," Kumar said.

He added that as the business expands, Amazon continues to prioritise scale and differentiation alongside financial discipline. "So as we scale our business, we want to build bigger and better things," he said.

The comments come at a time when Amazon's India marketplace arm is showing sharper financial traction. Amazon Seller Services, the ecommerce major’s India marketplace unit, saw its revenues rise 19 percent from Rs 25,406 crore in FY24 to Rs 30,139 crore in FY25, driven by higher customer activity on its platform.

At the same time, the company sharply narrowed its losses. Net loss shrank 89 percent from Rs 3,469.5 crore in FY24 to Rs 374.3 crore in FY25, as the firm reined in expenses and displayed tighter execution.

Kumar also said the company does not view quick commerce as a threat to its core ecommerce marketplace, pushing back against the growing narrative that ultra-fast delivery platforms are structurally eating into traditional ecommerce demand.

"We don’t think quick commerce and e-commerce are different," he said.

He outlined Amazon’s view of online commerce as a spectrum of delivery speeds and assortments, rather than a binary choice between quick commerce and marketplace-led ecommerce.

"There will be a certain amount of selection that will be delivered in minutes. There will be a much larger selection—100,000 or so—delivered in hours. And then there will be the rest of millions of items that will be delivered in same day, next day, or two days," Kumar said.

According to him, these different delivery promises cater to distinct customer needs and co-exist within the same online commerce ecosystem.

"It’s part of the overall online commerce or e-commerce. We don’t treat it as different. I think they will complement each other. Customers will value the fast delivery. Customers will value the prices that we provide and the large assortment. But that whole large assortment—you can’t deliver it in 15 minutes. So you need all of those together," he said.

On Amazon's competitive positioning in a market where incumbents across ecommerce and quick commerce already have a significant footprint, Kumar said the company’s edge lies in combining depth of assortment with multiple delivery speed options.

"That would be our vast selection delivered at various speed points. Nobody will offer that," he said.

Kumar illustrated the point with a consumer use-case. "If you’re going to a party and you forgot to buy a gift, you can buy it on a fast promise. But if you are hosting a party for 20 people, then you come to Amazon—we provide you the best value," he said.

Amazon on December 10 announced that it will invest an additional $35 billion in India by 2030, over and above the $40 billion it has already deployed in the country since 2010. The next phase of capital deployment will focus on enhancing the company's AI capabilities, exports, and job creation, as the company scales its India operations further.

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On leadership and execution, Kumar said running Amazon India today is fundamentally different from its early years as the business has shifted from a startup phase to one of scale.

"It's a business of scale now. So I have to manage it as a scale leader, not just as a startup leader," he said.

He added that this shift has required a change in leadership style. "It's more about leading through my leaders, making sure I have a good leadership team in place, and ensuring that the message that I send flows through my leaders. Zero to one and one to 10 requires a different leadership style, and now it’s more about scaling that," Kumar said.