Amazon India doubles its seller base in less than a year

Online retail giant Amazon India has doubled its seller base in less than a year. Since its Arrival in 2013, Amazon India has challenged its counterparts in almost all the aspects to outrun them. And crossing the milestone of 200,000 as seller base in four years is no less than surprise for many.

Marking its fourth anniversary in India, where Amazon has pledged to invest $5 billion to grow its business, the firm has been committed to transform the selling space in the country.

On reaching the milestone, Gopal Pillai, Director and GM, Seller Services, Amazon India said, “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 conducive environment for anyone with 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.”

“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,” added Gopal.

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 lakh of SMEs  in Tier II and tier III geographies. In additions, its 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.

Amazon.in has been working extensively to launch services that meet different business requirements of sellers and help them scale greater heights. Products like Fulfilment By Amazon (where Amazon.in packs, ships and delivers products to customers, manages returns and does customer service on behalf of the sellers) and Easy Ship (an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India) provide an easy way to do the business.

Amazon’s innovations of Seller Flex (bringing Amazon’s flagship FBA experience to the seller’s doorstep by implementing the FBA technology at sellers’ warehouses), Amazon Tatkal (a service-on-wheels to help SMBs get online within 60 minutes) and Amazon Connect (an integrated platform to enable sellers to interact with Amazon.in’s senior leadership and fellow sellers) have given an edge over others. The company is now looking at taking several of its India-first innovations to other global markets, while also helping Indian sellers sell their products outside the country.

Since Indian government policy for foreign direct investment (FDI) in e-commerce doesn’t allow any single seller to contribute more than 25 per cent of the sales on a marketplace, therefore Amazon.in has to be on toe and innovative to keep third-party sellers coming on its platform.

Amazon India’s programme to woo sellers

Last year, it launched a Special Lending Program for sellers that enable them to easily access secured & unsecured loans between Rs 5 lakh rupees to Rs 2 crore 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 India 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.