Amazon seller base spikes 80 per cent in 2017

Online retailer Amazon India has seen its seller base in the country hit 2.7 lakh, a growth of 80 per cent compared to the beginning of the year.
Over 50 per cent of the merchant base is from tier II cities and beyond, Amazon India Director and GM (Seller Services) Gopal Pillai told PTI.
"We have seen tremendous growth this year in terms of seller addition. The base has grown from 1.5 lakh in January to 2.7 lakh currently. We hope to continue the momentum next year as well," he added.
Amazon India is locked in an intense battle with home- grown firm, Flipkart, for leadership position in the burgeoning Indian e-commerce market. It has pumped in billions of dollars to expand infrastructure, ramp up seller base and customer experience.

About 2018, Pillai said the company will "double down" on its investment on its seller app, which has already seen over a million downloads.
"The seller app is an important way of reaching out to people who want to list as a seller on our platform. It makes the whole listing process simple and we are already witnessing traction on the app," he said.

Nearly 27,000 of its sellers are part of Amazon's global selling programme that allows them to sell across the globe.
Pillai said Amazon India has also seen strong growth in seller addition after the GST regime came into being in July this year.

"We are very happy with the numbers. We have seen more additions post-GST than pre-(GST)... even though there were apprehensions that GST might have adverse impact on small businesses, we have seen strong growth," he said.
Pillai added that growth was on the back of multiple programmes it had launched -- including A-to-Z GST Guide -- to handhold sellers for the new taxation regime.