Amazon Prime Video Beats Netflix in India; Amazon India Will Launch Own Personal Care Products!

While the Hotstar and Jio (JioTV & Jio Cinema) continue to lead in the digital media streaming space in India, the battle for the second spot continues with global leaders Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Netflix continues to be the leader around the globe in online video streaming category. But in India, Amazon Prime Video has beaten Netflix to grab the second spot.

Apart from India, Germany and Japan are the other two markets, where Amazon Prime Video leads the total subscriber base over Netflix.

Amazon Prime Video vs. Netflix

The battle between online video streaming giants, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, in India, has intensified post the cheap data revolution. The digital streaming medium has seen a major boom in the last one and a half years.

Within a year of its launch, Amazon Prime Video has surpassed Netflix in India, with around a 10% market share in 2017.

According to analysts, pricing has been the major factor for driving Amazon Prime Video which is included with Amazon Prime subscription on Amazon India. Amazon Prime, which came for Rs. 499/- initially, is now available for Rs. 999/- per year. This is unbeatable value because it also includes all the benefits of Prime service for online shopping. Compared to this, Netflix’s lowest subscription costs Rs. 500/- per month.

This makes the choice easier for a majority of the people.

Amazon Prime Inclusive Of Amazon Prime Video

With Amazon’s recent investments in local content, integration and deals with telcos and the launch of their own wallet, Amazon Pay, the expansion of the Amazon Prime has been a key driver for Amazon Prime Video’s growth.

India is a key market for Amazon Prime Video. To strengthen their commitment towards India, Amazon has promised to invest $300 million for creating original content in Hindi and other regional languages.

Amazon India To Launch Own Beauty & Personal Care Products

The ‘Beauty and Personal Care’ category has seen a sharp growth in online apparel market in the last couple of years. As a result, e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart have increased their focus on the high-margin cosmetics category.

After Flipkart-owned Myntra made its debut in the beauty products segment, Amazon India is getting ready to launch its own brand of beauty and personal care products. The top two digital retailers in the country are chasing the fast-growing cosmetics market dominated by smaller startups like Nykaa and Purplle.

Amazon India is in talks with some contract manufacturers and will soon launch its own private labels in multiple categories within skin care and makeup categories.

Amazon India already retails around 2 million beauty products across 19,000 brands. The ‘Beauty and Personal Care’ is an important category for the e-commerce company.

Myntra, at present, sells more than 100 brands of beauty products on their platform. It is expected to launch its own beauty and personal care brand this year.

The Online Beauty & Personal Care Industry

The domestic online beauty and personal care market, which stands at about $300 million now, is expected to cross the $3.5 billion mark by the end of 2022. The online apparel market is worth $3.8 billion and is growing at the rate of 10-12 percent on a Year-on-Year basis.

For Indian beauty brands such as Maybelline, Lakme and VLCC, online platforms are the fastest growing channels in terms of revenue generation. Maybelline stated that 20 percent of total India sales last year came from online marketplaces.

The Competition

The online beauty market in the country is dominated by Nykaa with a commanding 33 percent share. They recently closed 2017 with a gross merchandise volume (GMV) or gross sales of Rs. 1,000 plus crore!

Nykaa has its own line of cosmetics under Nykaa Cosmetics which contributes around 10-12 percent of its overall sales. The company is planning to expand in the offline market by adding about 50 stores by the end of this fiscal year.

The other leader in the beauty care segment, Purplle has a foothold in around 13% of the market. They are planning to open five stores in Mumbai in 2018. The startup is also planning to launch its own brands within the sub-segments of makeup and skincare.

Experts anticipate that Amazon India’s recent investment in Shoppers Stop will give the e-tailer a boost with its private-label business by leveraging the chain of Shoppers Stop stores to build a steady offline distribution channel for its soon-to-be-launched beauty products.