bengaluru, June 25 -- Amazon India will extend its flagship Prime Day sale to three days in July with a deeper focus on small towns and cities, a top executive said, underscoring the importance of sale events for e-commerce platforms when the industry is facing slowing growth. Prime Day will be held on 12-14. Prime members will get earlier access to new product launches across categories, including consumer electronics, groceries and essentials, and furniture and home improvement items. "India is a country that has multiple-day events and sales events. We realized that every time we would finish Prime Day, there was always feedback from customers saying that they missed buying one thing or another. We also got great interest from brands and sellers on the platform," said Akshay Sahi, director, Prime, delivery and returns, India and emerging markets, in an interview. Despite touching nearly $60 billion in 2024, India's e-commerce market growth slowed to 10-12% during the year from over 20% seen historically, due to macroeconomic and consumption stress, showed a March 2025 report by Flipkart and Bain & Co. According to the report, consumption growth in the country has declined from 11% in the pre-covid period (2017-19) to about 8% post-covid (2022-24) due to inflationary pressure and stagnating real wages. As a result, sales have become critical for e-commerce companies to drive revenue and increase purchase frequencies throughout the year. The Indian arm of the global e-commerce giant will introduce a greater number of deals this year across products with additional discounts and no-cost EMI payment options for select credit and debit cardholders. These deals are likely to increase traction in smaller towns, putting Amazon head-to-head with the likes of SoftBank-backed Meesho and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Flipkart holds the pole position in e-commerce with a 48% market share, while Meesho is the country's fastest-growing e-retailer in terms of user base, according to January 2024 estimates by AllianceBernstein. Amazon lagged with a 13% growth in its user base, attributed to its relatively premium offerings compared to peers. Prime subscribers from outside metro cities are growing every year, with sales events like Prime Day showing accelerated adoption, said Amazon's Sahi....