NEW DELHI: E-commerce giant Amazon on Friday said that it has acquired homegrown social commerce start-up GlowRoad for an undisclosed sum. In a statement, the company said the acquisition is a step in the company’s commitment to digitise 10 million local Indian businesses by 2025.
“Amazon continues to explore new ways to digitize India and delight customers, micro-entrepreneurs and sellers and bringing GlowRoad onboard is a key step in this direction. Together with GlowRoad, Amazon will help accelerate entrepreneurship among millions of creators, homemakers, students, and small sellers from across the country,” an Amazon said in an email response.“This acquisition will complement GlowRoad’s already loved service with Amazon’s technology, infrastructure, and digital payments capabilities, bringing more efficiency and cost-saving for everyone,” the spokesperson added.
Globally, social commerce industry is expected to grow three times as fast as traditional e-commerce to $1.2 trillion by 2025, according to a recent (January) Accenture study. Notably, the same study also showed that nearly eight out of ten social media users in India use social commerce to make purchases. In November last year, Myntra also launched its influencer-driven live commerce platform ‘M-Live’ in a move to expand its social commerce business. Chinese buyers have long supported the concept through apps like TaoBao. In India, however, It’s a recent development.