Calcutta, Feb. 28: Online marketplace Amazon India hopes to maintain a growth of 165 per cent in the consumables category in 2017 and expects the segment to be a revenue driver for the company.

"Last year the consumables segment grew 165 per cent and this year we aim to maintain that growth. The overall market for this segment is big and it will continue to be one of the fastest growing categories," said Saurabh Srivastava, director category management FMCG, Amazon India, at the launch of Amazon Pantry in Calcutta on Tuesday.

Amazon Pantry, the online retailer's grocery division - is the first from the Amazon stable in the east and is available in 29 cities across India. The company is also planning to expand into smaller cities.

"Of the 29 cities, some are relatively smaller ones. The metros have been covered. Now, the expansion is going to happen in smaller cities," Srivastava said, adding that nearly 50 per cent of total sales in the FMCG segment come from Tier II and III cities.

"We are working towards making e-commerce a daily habit for consumers through Amazon Pantry," said Srivastava.

At present, there are over 19 lakh products in the consumables category and in the last one year the selection has grown to nearly 9,000 sellers.

The online retailer has 27 warehouses across 10 states. The US-based company is also planning to sell some exclusive FMCG items.

"We provide a lot of data on market trends to our partners which help them to study their launches. This is done through data mining of our customers by using artificial intelligence," said Srivastava.

Amazon India's current strategy is based on three pillars - a wide range of selections, competitive prices and speedy and reliable delivery.

The global marketplace is testing Amazon Now in four cities which promises to deliver an order in two to four hours. But Srivastava declined to give any timeframe for bringing the service to Calcutta.

On adding medicine as a category, Srivastava said, "Any category relevant to consumers is relevant for us. We are waiting for legal clarity on dealing with medicines on e-commerce platform."