Amazon India launches seller lending network

Amazon India today launched its Seller Lending Network (SLN), which will allow sellers on the e-commerce major's platform to seek loans from multiple third party lenders.

Amazon India has partnered organisations like Aditya Birla Finance, Bank of Baroda, Capital First, Capital Float, Flexiloans, and Yes Bank for the lending programme.

"With this launch, a seller can perform all loan-related activities including viewing multiple loan offers, applying for loans and easy/automatic loan repayments by linking their Amazon sale proceeds to their loan account, all on Amazon's Seller Central portal," Amazon India said in a statement.

Amazon India, which is locked in an intense battle for market leadership with homegrown player Flipkart, has about 3.4 lakh sellers on its platform.

Under SLN, sellers will get access to a wider selection of loan options from multiple lenders and loan types (term loans or overdraft loans) as well as competitive interest rates.

They can avail loans via an online application process with minimal documentation and a very quick loan approval process of 2-3 days for new loans, and intra-day approval for existing loan renewals through SLN, the statement said.

"This is, in-fact, the first geography where Amazon has built a lending programme like this for sellers. Our endeavour is to make the end-to-end process quicker and convenient, allowing sellers to focus on their core business and grow," Amazon India GM and Director Seller Services Gopal Pillai said.

He added that at the same time, the company is also focussing on giving an enhanced experience to the lending partners -- banks and NBFCs -- through seamless information sharing on seller performance and easy repayment solutions.

SLN also has Lender Central -- a portal for lenders -- to facilitate exchange of information between lenders and Amazon. Lender Central will facilitate information about seller performance data, loan application status and loan portfolio details.

Using Lender Central, lenders can track performance of a seller on Amazon.in real-time, thereby allowing them to better assess the sellers and make loan-decisioning models more comprehensive.

The Indian unit of the US-based e-tailer previously had a Seller Lending programme that had been launched in 2016.