Amazon crosses 10 lakh sellers milestone across India

Amazon India on Wednesday said that over 10 lakh sellers are now selling on its e-commerce platform from across India. The company had started in India in 2013 with 100 sellers and has today grown to be the preferred online destination for sellers across India.

Notably, more than 90 per cent of the sellers on Amazon are small and medium local businesses (SMBs) and over half of these sellers on the marketplace come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Since January 2020, more than 4.5 lakh new sellers have joined Amazon and over one lakh of these new sellers are local offline retailers & neighbourhood stores that have onboarded the Amazon marketplace through the 'Local Shops on Amazon' program.

“It is heartening to see the role Amazon is playing in enabling small local businesses across the country, “ said Manish Tiwary, Vice President – Amazon India.

“These include local offline retailers and neighbourhood stores from across India that are adopting e-commerce and placing their trust in Amazon to grow their business by selling online, participating in last-mile deliveries, joining assisted shopping and more.” 

Since its inception in India, Amazon has been focused on creating the infrastructure and the ecosystem needed to support SMBs to adopt e-commerce. This includes taking Chai Cart and Tatkal vans to markets and SMB hubs in cities across India for increasing awareness about e-commerce. It has been launching several India first innovations for Amazon like Seller Flex and Easy Ship.

The firm has also been creating focused programs to address key seller cohorts like ‘Karigar’ for weavers and artisans, ‘Saheli’ for women entrepreneurs and ‘Launchpad’ for emerging direct-to-consumer brands. The teams across Amazon have been focused on enabling these small businesses across India expand their reach to customers across the country and the world through e-commerce.

“The rapid growth of sellers joining Amazon.in reflects the tremendous entrepreneurial spirit of the Indian businesses and the key role e-commerce has played in their business especially during the recent challenges caused by the pandemic,” said Tiwary. “As we look forward, we remain committed to our pledge of digitizing 10 million SMBs including the ubiquitous dukaans. We strongly believe that Amazon can play a significant role in fueling India’s digital economy to its $1 trillion ambition.” 

Amazon has been engaging with the vast network of local neighbourhood stores across India, integrating e-commerce into their operations through focused programs like Local Shops of Amazon (for online selling), Amazon Easy (for assisted shopping), I Have Space (for last-mile deliveries) and more. These focused programs have been witnessing rapid adoption.

Launched in April 2020, ‘Local Shops on Amazon’ brings the benefits of e-commerce to offline retailers and neighbourhood stores. It helps them supplement existing footfalls at their stores with a digital presence on Amazon and expand their reach beyond their normal catchment. For customers, this program brings together the safety and convenience of online shopping with the familiarity and trust of their favourite local stores.

The program has witnessed accelerated adoption across the country, growing over 20 times since launch with the total number of sellers on the program doubling in just the last eight months. The program has already been expanded to 450 cities across India including top metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities like Sangli, Osmanabad, Jamnagar, Gorakhpur and Jabalpur. Amazon has pledged to onboard 10 lakh local stores on Amazon by 2025.

Also, launched in 2015, Amazon Easy enables assisted shopping experience for new to Amazon customers, especially in smaller towns and cities, while enabling additional income for these local stores. Customers can walk into the store and place an order on Amazon with guided assistance from the store staff and pick up the order from the store or get it delivered at their doorstep.

The number of Amazon Easy stores is on track to the 1 lakh stores mark by end of 2021. An upgraded ‘Amazon Easy’ store format has recently been launched offering a touch & feel product experience and integrating multiple Amazon services through a single touchpoint. The upgraded format stores will soon be expanded to other parts of the country.

With the launch of the ‘I Have Space (IHS)’ program in 2015, Amazon has empowered and unlocked the entrepreneurial potential of many neighbourhood stores across the country.

Under this program, Amazon helps local business owners to deliver products to their customers within a 2 to 4 kilometres radius of their store, allowing them to increase their sales and generate more footfalls in their stores. This is a network of close to 28,000 micro-businesses and retail outlets in more than 420 cities across India.