Amazon is far from only being software atleast in India.

They've such a volume here in India that since Amazon has got here, traditional LTL logistics soared in price wayyy higher

Amazon has completely revolutionised logistics here in India, you'll have hard time sending a box from point A to point B cheaper than what Amazon offers.

We are at a point where Amazon sells things much cheaper shipped to your door than a shop near you. (If you don't live in a metro city highly likely, the price which Amazon offers, local shops simply can't beat them)

And in India something like 60-70% people live in small towns and villages, traditional family owned distribution networks are failing to compete with Amazon, yes the ones which power most of the shops in the town.

I maintain, the traditional family owned distribution networks were even more exploitative (screwing over both customers and their workers) in India atleast compared to what Amazon offers.

Amazon delivery agent here are guys from low economic class and often from villages nearby. I am glad my purchases are helping these people survive than the "several property owning shopkeeper near me" competing with me in the real estate market while simultaneously ripping me off on the price on various tools.

Few years ago I was working for such family owned distribution networks and I never seen such miseries in life, truckers were often not paid at time, often driving trucks which hardly get any service (dangerously), the axel could become rocket anytime while on road. Amazon has only brought best practises to us, they've regular vehicle maintenance schedule, drivers get paid on time. Amazon delivery agents are some of the happiest people I've met despite working so hard, they are always smiling while delivering stuff to me.

The distribution agents were regularly fired without payment (it's not completely organized sector so lots of labor operate in grey area, where if they don't get paid don't have any legal recourse and most likely no one will believe if they ever worked for the person they are claiming to have rendered their service to. I am glad, the nepotistic and exploitative power nexus of family owned distribution networks is dying.

Easy return was never available in India, and you risked getting "death stares" from the shopkeeper if you ever returned anything to him because of quality issues of the product.

Other than this, most of the times I had seen "young girls" walking into market and getting "40% discount" by some thristy shopkeeper and they wouldn't do same for a guy ever, atleast this form of descrimination is dying with Amazon.

And honestly speaking, if a lot of Amazon executives in Bangalore and Gurgaon are getting rich, it's well deserved for what they've done for the nation.

I forgot to mention, we've many Amazon competitors but primarily Flipkart - well, getting them to replace/return anything has been tough for me, maybe because I live in a small town, I don't say but I get all my packages in 2 days from Amazon (without prime), while Flipkart takes 5 days here minimum.

What would I like to see Amazon change?

1. Make it possible to sell low value items which cost less than 200 and aggregate it before it's shipped to customer and charge customer shipping on aggregate weight shipped for these small combines. Sometimes it's very difficult when you've to order small items and pay 150-200 shipping on each item. These can be "no return combine", I will not bother returning such low value item, so Amazon saves overhead and additional costs.

2. Please revolutionze hardware space for retail buyers, stuff like "steel sheets, MDF, nail, bolts, nuts" - we don't have any Homedepot or Lowe's, we really need it and my hope is only on Amazon. Other countries like US has Homedepot where u can get most of the hardware fittings while this space is seriously lagging in India, everyone uses different naming for a spare part, etc...we don't even have anything like "McMasterCarr".