Annual sale events round the corner, Amazon pumps Rs 590 Cr into Amazon Pay

As ecommerce giants Flipkart and Amazon ready for their festival sales, their respective payment arms are gearing up to corner higher market share.

With annual flagship sales round the corner, ecommerce major Amazon invested in an additional Rs 590 crore into its Indian digital payments arm Amazon Pay (India) Private Ltd, documents filed with Registrar of Companies (RoC) show. Amazon's flagship festival sale will start around later this month.

While Flipkart and Amazon are set to clash with their respective sale events their payment arms will also compete to garner more market share. Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days will run from October 10 to October 14, and Amazon India’s six days of Great Indian Festival sale starts October 10.

The recent fund infusion by Amazon into its payment arm is the third this year – Amazon had pumped in Rs 195 crore and Rs 230 crore in March and July this year, respectively.

As per RoC filing, the recent investment came from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.incs Limited.

According to consulting firm RedSeer, about 20 million people are expected to shop on various ecommerce platforms during the festival sales in October, and may generate total sales of $3 billion.

Amazon Pay India had, in August this year, acquired Bengaluru-based app aggregator Tapzo to ramp up its online payments business. The development comes in the backdrop of increased competition between rival ecommerce players’ payments arms. A Mint report said Amazon Pay India acquired Tapzo in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the company between $30 million and $40 million.

Rival Flipkart has been investing in its digital arm to beef up its arsenal. In August, it put in Rs 452 crore into PhonePe, and last week, the payment company secured $175 million, as per media reports.

Amazon plans to create a one-stop shopping solution for everything from groceries, to fashion, automobile accessories, books, music, entertainment, and others. In other words, the company is trying to push its digital wallet to become an everyday habit for its customers.