Amazon launches Storyboxes to bring its sellers closer to customers

Amazon India launched Storyboxes on Monday to bring its 5.5 lakh sellers closer to its customers.

An India-first innovation, Amazon Storyboxes is a packaging initiative that aims at showcasing inspiring stories of its sellers to millions of people who shop on the Amazon.in marketplace. With every delivery, Amazon brings these stories, narrated by the sellers themselves to the customers’ doorstep, giving sellers an opportunity to interact with customers and share their success stories on Amazon.

More than 50 per cent of customers received the first set Amazon storyboxes when they shopped during the recent Great Indian Festival sale. Along with stories, the boxes also contain an asset in the form of the face of the seller illustrated using QR code elements, that can be scanned. Customers can directly scan the face, which will lead them to the dedicated micro site to explore more stories.

Currently, success stories of six key sellers have been captured on the boxes as part of Storyboxes. Vijaya Rajan, 46, who joined the Amazon Saheli programme in 2017, created Sirimiri, a brand of nutrition products which offers 8 variants of energy bars and 6 variants of muesli and sells 1,000 units a month on Amazon.in.

“I was always interested in nutritious food for my family. Sirimiri was a result of my experiments to create nutritious food/snacks devoid of preservatives and artificial ingredients that my husband could have to keep his energy levels up while he was training to swim across the English Channel. My products became popular among friends and family and their positive feedback encouraged me to sell it on Amazon. I am happy to share my story on Storyboxes with my customers” Rajan told BusinessLine. She has a factory on the outskirts of Bengaluru and employs 15 people. Her husband, an IT professional quit his full time job to join his wife as her first employee.

The other five sellers are: Rani Ravindran, a homemaker and mother who hails from a Tier 4 town, Periyakulam sells wooden toys and cotton pillows on Amazon. Biswajit Swain, a software professional who works to revive lost arts and crafts of his home town Odisha sells crafts of local artisans on Amazon. Abdul Gafoor Khatri, yet another seller who keeps his family’s 300 year old Rogan art painting alive and is a recipient of the Padma Shri award. He created an art piece for former US President Barack Obama. Ibanshara Shullai, who works with farmers of Meghalaya to sell Lakadong turmeric and Wildflower honey on Amazon. Ashwin Sokke who sells on Amazon’s India marketplace and is also a Global Seller, who has built a million-dollar consumer brand WOW! is also part of Storyboxes.

Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services, Amazon India, said, “Our entrepreneurial culture and initiatives have always been aligned with our vision of transforming the way India buys and sells. We have launched a campaign - #IamAmazon which highlights the strong connection between sellers and customers, with an intent to show the role customers play in transforming the lives of the sellers. The stories featured on the package gives the customer a glimpse into the person who made the product for them, giving them a deeper understanding of what lies inside the box.”