When Latha H N registered as a seller on Amazon.in on June 5, 2017, little did she know that she has charted out a huge milestone in Amazon’s Indian journey. Latha who sells under the brand ‘BnJ’ has become the 2,00,000th seller on Amazon.in, a milestone reached in just four years of the company’s India operations and in less than a year of crossing the 1 lakh seller count last July.
This fast pace of adoption of the Amazon India marketplace by retailers-online and offline as well as first generation digital entrepreneurs has come on the back of various unique, India-first innovations like feet on street teams, self-service registration, Chai Cart and Tatkal that helped take this digital opportunity to lakhs of SMEs in Tier II and tier III geographies. In additions, partnerships with several national and state government bodies is helping unlock this online opportunity for thousands of Indian artisans, weavers and craftsmen in the country.
“We are very excited and humbled to reach the important milestone of 2 lakh sellers on the Amazon India marketplace in just four years of our operations in India. We have been laser focused in our ambitious vision of transforming the way India sells and evolving a conducive environment for anyone with an intent to sell to do so locally, nationally, and globally. Working seller backwards every step of the way, we have not only introduced Indian sellers to our globally successful offerings for sellers like Fulfilment by Amazon, but have constantly innovated specifically for Indian sellers to address their unique challenges. Right from introducing low cost fulfilment channels through innovations like Easy Ship and Seller Flex to customizing existing ecosystems to introduce SPN and ATES to build online capabilities of the new digital entrepreneurs to undertaking relevant awareness programs like Chai Cart &Tatkal, we have constantly worked towards helping sellers chart their growth,” says Mr. Gopal Pillai, Director and GM, Seller Services, Amazon India. “Our teams have done an admirable job focusing on our core seller experience, seller enablement and seller success. The fast paced adoption of our marketplace by sellers speaks volumes of their trust in us to help them grow and succeed,” Gopal adds.
Amazon.in has been working extensively to launch services that meet different business requirements of sellers and help them scale greater heights. From offering Fulfilment By Amazon (a pay-as-you-go fulfilment service wherein Amazon.in packs, ships and delivers products to customers, manages returns and does customer service on behalf of the sellers), innovating Easy Ship (an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India), launching Seller Flex (bringing Amazon’s flagship FBA experience to the seller’s doorstep by implementing the FBA technology at sellers’ warehouses), introducing Amazon Tatkal (a service-on-wheels to help SMBs get online within 60 minutes), to launching Amazon Connect which is an integrated platform to enable sellers to interact with Amazon.in’s senior leadership and fellow sellers, to setting up Seller Cafes across 30 cities and towns in India to provide on-ground support to sellers, to building the largest storage capacity in ecommerce in India for sellers to the tune of 13 million cubic feet, Amazon.in has been helping sellers reach millions of customers across the country.
The company launched a Special Lending Program for sellers last year that enables them to easily access secured & unsecured loans between 5 lakh rupees to INR 2 crores from their partners Capital First and YES Bank. Its Global Selling Program launched in India in May 2015 has over 20,000 sellers today selling their ‘Made in India’ products on Amazon’s ten global marketplaces to millions of active worldwide customers.
Over the last one year, Amazon.in has collaborated with several national and state government institutions including Development Commissioner of Handloom under the Union Ministry of Textiles, Government of Nagaland and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Gujarat Tribal Development Department (GTDD) and West Bengal State Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society Ltd., popularly known as “Tantuja” to supplement the efforts of the government to uplift weavers, artisans, craftsmen & SMEs across the country. Amazon India has been conducting workshops across towns and cities in India and has rolled out several training modules for sellers to address their specific business requirements and help them sell in India and across the globe. The company recently collaborated with Jharkhand Silk Textile and Handicraft Development Corporation Ltd, popularly known as ‘Jharcraft’, a government of Jharkhand undertaking to enable designers and weavers of Jharkhand to sell designer wear and traditional sarees directly on Amazon.com.
