Amazon brought its rapidly expanding creator ecosystem under one roof at the Creator Connect: Reflect & Rise event in Delhi on 14 November 2025, an evening that made one thing unmistakably clear. Creators are no longer accessories to the shopping journey; they are the journey of a trend that mirrors broader consumer behaviour in India.
With the room buzzing with creators like Sameera Reddy, Saransh Goila, Rajiv Makhni, and Kritika Khurana, and Amazon leadership laying out a vision for the next decade, the event showcased how creator-led interaction, livestreamed experiences, and real-time recommendations are becoming the new front door to e-commerce.
For Amazon, this was not just a celebration. It was a demonstration of how the company intends to redefine consumer decisions in a world where trust travels through people, not platforms.
At the centre of this shift is Zahid Khan, Director of Shopping Experience for India. He has been instrumental in shaping the architecture of India’s creator-commerce engine, a framework that is wide at the base and deeply curated at the top. In his conversation with Marketing Mind, Khan explained why Amazon approaches the creator economy very differently.
He noted that the journey begins with access but matures with credibility. “We have a pretty democratic Amazon Influencer Program where anyone with about 2,000 followers or above can come and sign up. And it’s a bit of a pyramid where it’s all self-service at the bottom, but as you start doing well, by building trusted content that people are liking, clicking, making buying decisions, then you climb up the pyramid.”
That climb, however, is not based on follower counts or viral bursts. It is anchored in trust. “We qualify creators at the bottom of the pyramid, and once they participate with us, that’s how we build trust. Authenticity and trust are at the heart of what happens. We are all about that authentic, trustworthy story.”
Amazon Elevate: Where Creators Become Commerce Architects
Sitting at the peak of this pyramid is Amazon Elevate, the program that transforms top performers into platform partners. Elevate offers creators a level of support that mirrors professional production environments, enabling them to build high-quality commerce-driven content at scale – essential in a market where high-engagement niche creators dominate.
Khan described how Amazon is progressively giving creators a sense of ownership over their retail environments, moving them from recommenders to curators. “When you sign up for the AIP program, you can create what’s called the storefront. Emerging storefronts where you handpick the products you like. A customer can just browse that store. It’s immersive. Then Amazon Live is a full-screen affair where you can chat with the creator and do giveaways.”
While the creator ecosystem becomes more immersive, Amazon is simultaneously building the loyalty layer that will eventually weave commerce, content, and rewards into a seamless loop
“We’re piloting Amazon Diamonds with about 50 million customers. If you buy something or join an Amazon Live session, you earn diamonds. You can accumulate them and get discounts. We haven’t yet connected it to the creator program, but it’s a great concept and who knows, maybe in the future,” Khan said.
Tools That Empower Creators
The base infrastructure of Amazon’s creator ecosystem has always been about removing friction and giving creators full control over how they build influence. Whether it is hosted storefronts, live formats, or early access to products, Amazon is shaping an environment where creators can design their own brand of commerce.
Yet even with the growing flood of creators enabled by AI tools, low-cost production, and mobile-first editing, Amazon remains rooted in a deliberate compass. “Trust and authenticity. A hundred million creators is a very large number, but we wouldn’t run after that. We’d focus on creators building authentic connections. The number could be anything, but we are always going to be focused on authentic creators who can connect with customers.”
On AI specifically, Khan explained: “I’ve seen the AI avatar live streams in China, but I don’t see us going there right now. Creators use AI to script or design supers in the background, but I don’t see them replacing humans. The human touch should always be there, exactly because that’s what drives trust.”
Unlocking the Next Stage of Creator Value
As creators evolve from content producers to commerce operators, a critical question emerges: what new layers of value can Amazon unlock?
Khan pointed to the Tech Influencer Program as a case study in how Amazon responds directly to creator needs. “One of the biggest things creators want is access to inventory, so the Tech Influencer Program gives them early access, sometimes three weeks before the product launch. We opened our high-tech studios to them so they can come in, shoot, and leave. And we give them better commissions and preferential rates.”
Creators as Entrepreneurs
As creators mature, they begin to approach their craft like entrepreneurs, building brands, launching merchandise, and reading data like business owners rather than entertainers. Amazon is shaping its ecosystem to support this evolution.
“The Influencer Program has Creator University inside the app. It upskills creators who then become entrepreneurs with their own merchandising or brand lines. And we have the B2C Program which helps brand-new entrepreneurs sell on Amazon, how to position, how to merchandise. We connect creators to that so they can be both creators and entrepreneurs,” Khan said.
Today’s consumer decisions happen in milliseconds, often triggered by a short reel or a relatable micro-moment. Amazon is redesigning the product experience to meet the consumer at that instant. “It takes 0.47 seconds to make a decision. So in addition to long-form content, we’re trialling short-form. If you’re on a skincare detail page, you might see a 30-second reel from a creator. Click it, and you’re in this immersive loop. It’s connected to the moment you’re in skincare discovery,” Khan highlighted.
Amazon’s creator strategy is no longer about influencers endorsing products. It is about building a shopping environment rooted in trust, shaped through community, and designed around micro-moments of inspiration. With tiered qualification systems, immersive storefronts, loyalty pilots, early-access programmes, AI-assisted creativity, and entrepreneurship pathways, Amazon is building an ecosystem where creators do not just tell consumers what to buy; they redesign how consumers buy.
For Zahid Khan, this evolution is only the beginning. The future of commerce in India, he believes, will be shaped by creators who combine authenticity, creativity, and business discipline, and Amazon intends to be the platform that empowers them at every step.
