Amazon India is witnessing a massive shift in how shoppers discover and buy products, driven largely by a booming creator ecosystem. In an exclusive conversation with Impact, Zahid Khan, Director – Shopping Experience, Amazon India, outlines how the company’s influencer program has rapidly expanded, reshaping e-commerce behaviour across the country.
According to Khan, 2024 has been a transformational year. Amazon’s creator platform, Creator Central, saw its community grow from one lakh creators to 1.25 lakh during the recent festive period alone - a 25% spike achieved in just weeks. This surge, he said, translated into unprecedented shopper engagement. “Over 2 crore customers interacted with creator-led content this year, resulting in about 1 crore direct product sales,” Khan shares.
He attributes this momentum to a more streamlined onboarding process, rigorous checks for creator authenticity, and improved training tools. At the centre of these improvements is Creator Central, which serves as a hub for uploading content, tagging products, tracking performance, and conducting Amazon Live sessions.
Complementing this is Creator University, a structured learning platform that guides new creators on storytelling, content formats, and audience behaviour.
A major highlight of the year was the launch of the Tech Influencer Program (TIP), developed after extensive feedback from creators and customers. Through TIP, tech creators receive early access to gadgets; sometimes weeks before launch, along with access to Amazon’s fully-equipped studios across metro cities. Selected creators under TIP also receive higher commission rates, addressing long-standing pain points around product access and production quality. “This helped tech creators offer more informed, hands-on reviews to consumers, especially those shopping for their first appliance or gadget,” Khan explains.
He also emphasises Amazon’s deliberate focus on regional and non-metro creators. Nearly 70% of creator-led sales came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, while two-thirds of successful creators emerged from 500+ non-metro pin codes. To support this growing demographic, Amazon has localised communication and training resources in multiple regional languages.
The festive season underscored the power of creators. During Diwali, around 4 million shoppers purchased products after consuming creator content across categories such as fashion, beauty, home and kitchen. This year also marked Amazon’s first experiment with short-form reels embedded directly within product pages, starting with beauty. These 30-second creator clips helped customers make faster, more confident decisions, complementing longer Amazon Live sessions.
Looking ahead, Khan reveals about a major upcoming initiative: Amazon will soon connect brands directly with its vast creator network. The pilot has already begun and is expected to scale early next year. “Brands want access to credible creators, and we have 1.25 lakh of them,” he notes.
Watch the complete interaction below:
