Seattle-based online retailer Amazon is reportedly gearing up for an official presence in Southeast Asia by next year.
At the moment, the US company doesn’t offer services in the region, however rumor has it that Amazon is in the process on acquiring assets for expansion, reports Tech Crunch. Sources close to the news outlet said Amazon has been making new hires and purchasing refrigerated trucks – for its AmazonFresh grocery service – over the last few months. If things go according to plan, Singapore will be the first country of the region to get local services in the last quarter of 2017.
Earlier this year, Amazon was trying to acquire RedMart, a Singaporean grocery delivery startup, but eventually couldn’t due to their low bid. This move was in line with the rumored plan for AmazonFresh, which will launch along with Amazon’s Prime service on the island. At present, Vietnam is not on Amazon’s expansion radar, however the company is apparently planning on entering the Indonesian market in the future as well.
Southeast Asia currently houses some 600 million consumers. While at the moment only 5% of the region’s purchases are made online, e-commerce in Southeast Asia is expected to balloon in the next 10 years. In Vietnam alone, e-commerce sales grew 35% to US$4 billion last year.
[Photo via Amazon]
