Globally, Amazon plans to cut about 10,000 jobs, its largest headcount reduction to date.
Amazon.com Inc. It will also partially liquidate its India operations, showing that even a critical growth market of 1.4 billion consumers is not immune to CEO Andy Jassy’s cost-cutting campaign.
The company said it is providing food delivery and packaged goods to small businesses through wholesale door-to-door services. The exit will involve hundreds of thousands of layoffs, a person familiar with the matter said, as Amazon relies on core offerings in the country, such as online retail.
Jassy is cutting costs and jobs around the world as growth slows in various Amazon business areas.
In India, the retrenchment underscores Amazon’s struggle in one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce markets, with homegrown conglomerates Reliance Industries Ltd. and Tata Group as well as Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart.
After plowing billions of dollars over the past decade into everything from grocery delivery to payments in India, the company has yet to achieve the dominance it enjoys in markets like the US.
Several projects in beta testing may also be shelved, said the person, who asked not to be named. Amazon has announced that its Amazon Academy learning platform, which provides online exam preparation resources for students vying for admission to Indian medical and engineering schools, will shut down in the coming months.
Job losses in the country could be as low as hundreds, or more than 10,000, a fraction of Amazon India’s e-commerce workforce. In total, Amazon employs more than 100,000 people full-time in the country for its global operations.
The company drew the ire of unionized tech workers by offering what it called “voluntary separation” offers and giving workers a limited time — until Dec. 6 — to decide. Amazon itself does not have a union.
Globally, Amazon plans to cut about 10,000 jobs, the largest headcount reduction, people familiar with the matter said. He forecast the smallest increase in revenue during the holiday quarter, and Jassy put a hiring freeze on some corporate roles and closed several pilot and smaller programs.
Amazon launched Amazon Food in India in 2020, a food delivery service that will now shut down. Food from restaurants and other vendors offers everything from paratha-filled bread to McDonald’s burgers and fries. Amazon’s business-to-customer division will continue to offer small retailers and wholesale buyers items such as groceries and medical supplies, but has stopped door-to-door delivery of packaged consumer goods.
“We are phasing out these programs to take care of our customers and partners,” the company said in an emailed statement. “We are committed to India and will continue to invest in areas where we can bring value to our customers.”
Over the past decade, Amazon has expanded into segments such as grocery and digital payments, selling fashion, beauty products and flight tickets, adding millions of sellers in India. The company said they will be among the grocery, consumer electronics, fashion and business-to-business offerings in India.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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