Amazon’s creator army now powers 2 crore shopping decisions; here’s how it really works

New Delhi: Amazon India’s creator ecosystem is no longer a support function to the marketplace; it has become one of its most powerful engines of discovery and demand. The company’s own numbers reveal the scale of this transformation.

Its Creator Programs have driven creator-based discovery for over 2 crore shoppers this year. From 1 lakh creators before the festive season to over 1.25 lakh today, Amazon’s creator base has grown by 25% within months.

Nearly 70% of all creator-led purchases now come from non-metro cities, and more than two-thirds of its creators are emerging from over 500 non-metro pin codes. This is not an urban trend but a national shift in how Indians find, trust, and buy products.

The festive season alone saw over 40 lakh customers discovering products through creators, and categories such as lifestyle, electronics, beauty, and home saw the strongest traction. These numbers do not simply indicate growth; they reveal a structural change in India’s digital economy. Discovery is now happening through people, not platforms. And Amazon believes the future lies in owning the entire stack of creator-led commerce, not just participating in it.

Zahid Khan, Director of Shopping Experience at Amazon India, has watched this shift unfold from the inside. “We have a very large base of creators, over one and a half lakh creators that come and create content, add links, and make money.”

His perspective on the evolution of influence is shaped by the long view; he has seen Amazon’s marketing mix transform from offline and digital to what he calls the “latest phase,” where investment in creator content is central to how customers discover and evaluate products. As he puts it, “Because customers trust a lot of creator content, we are boosting a lot of content on socials and putting a lot of that content on Amazon itself in the form of live as well as short-form content.”

This is not theoretical. Customers spent a record 43 million minutes in just 30 days watching creator-led content on Amazon.in. Amazon Live, which many believed had been deprioritised, is now one of the strongest parts of this strategy.

Zahid is unequivocal about this: “We do have live streams. It’s live and kicking.” Year-on-year, viewership of Amazon Live has increased by 42%, with creators streaming across tech, fashion, beauty, and even travel.

Where Amazon is now doubling down, however, is in the intersection of relevance and context. The company has begun serving short-form influencer videos directly within the shopping journey. “When you show short-form content in line in the context of the shopping journey, then it works a lot better,” Zahid explained. For a skincare product, this could mean a 30-second reel of an influencer trying it on an Indian skin tone right inside the product detail page. This is Amazon quietly collapsing the distance between discovery and transaction, a shift that could fundamentally reset e-commerce behaviour in India.

But if there is one theme that defines Amazon’s creator strategy in 2025, it is the rise of tier-2 and tier-3 India. Zahid is clear about where the most untapped potential lies. “Today it would probably have to be the tier-2 and tier-3 creators simply because there’s a lot more work to be done in lower-tier India, reaching those audiences in their languages, in the stories that they connect with.”

Amazon’s internal systems now support hyperlocal creator growth. “We put a lot of content on Creator Central that is regional, that talks in their language, that trains them how to talk to their audiences,” he said. The company even breaks down regional insights with remarkable specificity: “We share things that are working well and selling well in their locale.”

His broader point is one that marketers often underestimate: India’s diversity is not cosmetic but behavioural. “If you move 50 kilometres from Lucknow, the language changes, the food changes, the clothes change, the buying patterns change and then a local influencer becomes key.”

This is why the expansion of Amazon’s creator ecosystem is not merely numerical but structural. Amazon is building the pipes through which regional influence will flow, from regional learning modules to localised product insights and creator storefronts tailored to regional demand.

The brand–creator ecosystem is now evolving as well. Zahid said brands like Samsung pushed Amazon to unlock deeper access to its creator network, leading to the company’s latest initiative: a structured, self-serve brand–creator collaboration model. “Imagine a brand putting up ‘Here are stories that we need created,’ and creators on the Creator Central app can say, ‘I want to sign up for this,’ and we just facilitate the relationship.”

For advertisers grappling with fragmented influencer workflows, fragmented measurement, and rising costs, Amazon’s proposition is simple yet powerful: full-funnel impact with real commerce outcomes, tied to first-party shopping data.

Zahid’s advice to marketers reflected this shift in thinking. “Look beyond the spend and just the reach. Look at it as a full-funnel solution.” He added, “At Amazon, we have all of these measurements, and we share that back with creators. That makes creators successful as well as us, and that makes brands successful as well.”

It is a pointed reminder at a time when budgets are ballooning, with many brand leaders admitting that 60–70% of their digital allocations now go to influencers.

Yet amid the acceleration, Zahid also sounds a clear warning about the potential homogenisation of content in the age of AI. “It’s a great tool, but your human creativity is a key ingredient, and that’s what customers connect with,” he added.

What emerges from Khan’s insights is a portrait of Amazon transforming into the operating system of India’s creator economy. Its ecosystem, from Amazon Live to shopping videos to immersive short-form content, now touches over 2 crore shoppers. Its creator base of 1.25 lakh is both deep and geographically diverse. Its investments in regional training, brand collaboration, and contextual video commerce reveal a long-term strategy rather than a short-term experiment.

Amazon is positioning creators as its front line, its trust layer, and its growth engine. The company is no longer merely adapting to the creator economy; it is building the infrastructure that will define it.