Social commerce isn’t social anymore– it’s pure commerce: Anuradha Aggarwal

“When we were younger, we were taught the AIDA funnel: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Consumers went through each stage and it took time. Today, especially with social commerce, that entire funnel is covered in 1 minute to 30 seconds. It catches your attention, you like the product, you click, you show interest, and you buy. The shrinking of the funnel is the biggest change,” said Anuradha Aggarwal, Director & CMO, Amazon India, in her fireside chat with Neeta Nair, Editor, Impact Magazine, at the 8th edition of the e4m Screenage Mobile Marketing Conference 2025.

The session, titled “Reimagining Brand Building for a Mobile-First Generation,” opened with how media habits have shifted, as Nair recalled the once-compulsory ritual of reading multiple newspapers each morning, now replaced by smartphone alerts. Aggarwal agreed that the change is cultural, yet universal. “Many people haven’t developed the habit of reading a physical newspaper at all, for them, a newspaper is simply what they scroll on their screens” she said, adding that the shift became personal the moment she realised newspapers at home were no longer being read. She shared how the newspaper was arriving every day, staying untouched and going straight into ‘raddi’,  a moment that made her register how drastically consumption habits had changed.

The legacy of Amazon’s early ‘Aur Dikhao’ positioning also came into focus. Aggarwal emphasised that the underlying insight remains relevant today, only hyper-personalised, “If I ask any of you how you shopped for your last pair of shoes, or how you shopped for your last T-shirt, you were probably in ‘aur dikhao’ mode anyway. The only difference now is that you’re asking for it within a segment, a category, or a specific price point. So the segmentation still exists, but it has become far more personalised.”

On marketing spends, she highlighted that brands must show up where consumers spend time. “For any marketeer, whether you’re an e-commerce giant or an offline retailer, you have to reach customers where they are. If they’re spending time on newspapers, you go there. If it’s television, you go there. If it’s mobile and digital, Instagram, Google, or any small screen — you go there,” she said. She added that Amazon’s media plans have evolved significantly over time, with a decisive shift towards connected TV and digital platforms, and a deeper reliance on the creator economy. She mentions, “We have a very large program called the Influencer Program, which works with 1.25 lakh influencers including, high-end, middle and nano influencers.” She stressed the reason behind this shift, noting, “The authenticity with which the creator and the influencer world can talk to the customer, it kind of rubs off on the brands that they endorse.”

Aggarwal also mentions that ‘Prime’ audiences remain a distinct focus area, with targeted brand communication for the platform’s most loyal customers. However, India’s linguistic diversity adds an additional layer of complexity. Amazon’s global font refresh, for instance, required redevelopment across eight Indian languages to maintain consistency in brand identity across interfaces. She then points out the role of market diversity in shaping brand communication. “India is definitely heavily segmented into people with credit cards, people with credit lines, people who pay through UPI,” she said, noting that differences extend to language and device access. Maintaining consistency across these variables is key to the platform’s experience.

Mobile-led social commerce emerged as a central theme, with Aggarwal explaining how the purchase funnel has collapsed into seconds. With livestream shopping and in-platform influencer sessions, customers can watch, compare, ask questions and place orders without leaving the interface. The result is a fast, instinct-driven decision journey that brands must adapt to. She added that Amazon’s AI shopping assistant ‘Rufus’ now allows users to perform live price and product comparisons even during influencer streams– making discovery-to-decision even more seamless.

The conversation later delved deeper to AI in advertising, creation and content personalisation. “I don't think AI is just ‘a thing’ anymore. It's a deeply integrated part of all our lives of shopping, of creation, of content and everything,” she said. Using the Amazon Great Indian Festival as an example, she explained how automation has enabled scale, “Instead of serving 700 creatives to consumers, we served 77,000 creatives to consumers,” emphasizing the gains in speed and efficiency. Aggarwal noted that AI is now helping marketers reduce repetitive work, streamline adaptations and personalise communication for different cohorts at scale. However, she was clear that human judgement remains non-negotiable, saying, “We still haven't reached a place where it's great for creation. We still need to develop judgment, human judgment.” The role of AI, she suggested, is to accelerate execution, while the responsibility of protecting brand distinctiveness continues to rest with people.

The discussion also touched on the agency and technology ecosystem behind Amazon’s marketing operations. Aggarwal noted that the company works with Smartly for scaled creative adaptation and collaborates with multiple agencies through WPP. Alongside external partners, Amazon also deploys its own internal marketing tools, including QuickSuite, to support faster content production and optimisation across platforms.

On competition from multiple D2C brand sites, she maintained that both vertical and marketplace models have value. Brand websites build depth and desire, while horizontal marketplaces remain indispensable when consumers want to compare pricing and explore options across brands.

When the topic shifted to loyalty, Aggarwal acknowledged India’s preference for deals while reiterating that trust ultimately determines retention. “My job is to make sure that all my customers feel like they're interacting with a trusted brand,” she said, adding that positive experiences drive repeat behaviour even in a highly price-sensitive landscape. She explained that retaining customers requires a combination of value and reliability, “I have to ensure the experience is great. I have to stay competitive, not just in pricing, but in selection. I need to offer everything people want to shop for, and I need to offer it at the best price.”

For Aggarwal, the screen-age hasn’t rewritten the fundamentals of marketing, it has simply raised the expectations around them. The brands that succeed are not the ones that bombard consumers with more notifications, but the ones that minimise effort, deliver relevance at the exact moment of intent and reinforce trust every time the customer arrives, no matter how fast the journey is or how many choices compete for attention.