Amazon expands to address business needs, offers credit to customers

Amazon Business, the business-to-business division of the e-commerce giant, is intensifying its operations in India to address the diverse needs of both large enterprises and small businesses across sectors such as IT services, manufacturing, and hospitality. The strategy encompasses onboarding additional sellers, expanding product variety and enhancing delivery speeds.

"Our focus for the next two years will be to increase the number of sellers, thereby offering a more comprehensive business-specific selection," said Suchit Subhas, Director of Amazon Business. "At present, we cover 99.5 per cent of the country with delivery times ranging between one to three days. We plan to improve upon that."

Subhas noted that prompt delivery is a crucial element for all business customers, as evidenced by Prime members contributing to over 50 per cent of sales this year.

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Established in 2017 with an initial 14,000 sellers, Amazon Business now hosts more than 10 lakh sellers and offers over 19 crore products. These range from laptops and electronics to industrial supplies and repair products.

The platform's customer-centric approach has been instrumental in its rapid growth over the past six years. It has seen a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 150 per cent in customer numbers and a 145 per cent increase in sales. Notably, Tier-II and Tier-III cities have significantly contributed, making up 65 per cent of the customer base, 33 per cent of whom are repeat buyers.

"To mark our sixth anniversary, we've integrated Amazon Pay Later to provide virtual credit to eligible business customers," Subhas added. "This will promote the digitisation of our business customers across India and also improve credit availability for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), thus enhancing the overall payment experience."

With Amazon Pay Later, businesses can sign up digitally to get immediate credit, facilitating seamless procurement across product categories and enabling bill payments on Amazon.in.

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Adapting to customer needs, Amazon Business has continued to innovate, launching features like 'Bill to Ship to,' which allows businesses to claim GST credit on pan-India shipments. Earlier this year, a mobile app optimised for Android and iOS was introduced to further streamline procurement. Additional features, such as 'Request for Quantity Discount,' serve to meet the demands of lakhs of business customers, thereby driving revenue growth for sellers on the platform.