Festive e-commerce sees two-wheeler boom, Amazon India's KN Srikanth on why automobiles could be the next big thing

The festive season is prime time for various e-commerce sales. While smartphones continue to drive the bulk of traffic during this time, e-commerce players look to build sales across a wide range of categories, from home improvement to premium automobiles.

K N Srikanth, director – home, kitchen and outdoors, Amazon India, tells Fortune India that home improvement sub-categories saw strong double-digit growth during the festival. However, Srikanth highlighted another emerging category gaining significance on the platform – automobiles.

He noted that, although currently limited to two-wheelers, this segment saw a 60% year-on-year growth. He placed high-end two-wheelers in the same strong-demand bracket as household items such as espresso makers.

“We have seen a strong double digit growth YoY getting into the event. People are buying products such as espresso makers for their home along with two wheelers from Harley Davidsons and Royal Enfield,” Srikanth added.

“Also, we recently launched Royal Enfield on Amazon.in and then KTM within like the first two weeks of launch, we are seeing some great numbers. [Overall] vehicles have been an amazing story growing 60% YoY, and we are very excited at the opportunity,” he said.

Amazon India currently offers a wide range of two-wheelers from brands such as Harley-Davidson, Royal Enfield, KTM, Bajaj, Hero, Ather, and Ola.

“We have hooked up the entire dealership network for these brands such as Bajaj, Hero, Ather, Ola, KTM, Harley Davidson and Royal Enfield. I think it's paying off because customers are loving the experience and it has been a good story so far,” he said.

Srikanth shared that for now on the platform, legacy players perform better than newer EV players with Bajaj Pulsar being Amazon India’s fastest growing vehicle.

“Similarly, each brand has one or two that are absolute favourites for customers, and they see the biggest lift. Then there are these premium specialty bikes like the KTMs and the Harleys that obviously see a huge jump,” he added.

Srikanth shared that the model to making this happen is straightforward, by leveraging existing dealership networks rather than building new infrastructure.

This approach, he claims, enables local dealers to sell through the platform while ensuring smooth delivery and post-purchase processes. The company claims to offer these two-wheelers within 6 days.

“In automobiles, we have made sure we are able to leverage the existing dealer network, we didn't want to create anything new on top and wanted to enable these dealers to also sell online with Amazon.in. We worked on many processes and fixed gaps as we understood customer experience to cut short the time, to be able to deliver in like average six days. There's also RTO registration that needs to happen, there is vehicle financing, insurance amongst others that one has to see before a vehicle is shipped out of a showroom, so we have worked across these multiple streams. Customers have two options, either the local dealer near their homes deliver it or they can walk into the outlet to pick it up. We have enabled that,” he added.

This indicates significant growth potential for automobiles as a category on e-commerce platforms.

Flipkart, for instance, also offers new two-wheelers, including models from Hero and Ola to its users. Fortune India has reached out for comment on whether the platform is also seeing growth in its automobile sales.

While there are platforms such as Spinny and CarDekho offering automobiles online but, sale does not entirely happen digitally. Earlier, quick-commerce player Zepto also had partnered with Skoda to offer 10-minute test-drive bookings.

A Zepto spokesperson told Fortune India that the reason there have not been partnerships with auto companies for end-to-end vehicle purchase is because delivering cars on the same day necessitates a robust inventory system, which Zepto is still working on.

Regarding delivery, Srikanth also acknowledged that it will be some time before customers can purchase and receive automobiles in a single day, as they do with other products.

Nevertheless, while automobile sales are still evolving, the strong growth observed during these festive sales underscores the category’s potential to become a major revenue driver, following in the footsteps of smartphones.