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A little over two years since its launch in India, e-commerce giant Amazon has quadrupled the number of sellers on its marketplace, from 9,000 sellers last August to 35,000 sellers currently.
Amazon launched a slew of initiatives sharply focused on wooing sellers from small and medium businesses, starting with an online process called ‘Self Service Registration’ introduced last February to the more recent ‘Amazon Chai Cart’ and ‘Service Provider Network’ launched in April and May respectively.
All these initiatives seem to have struck the right cord among sellers with 26,000 new sellers coming on board over the last 12 months.
Forty per cent (14,000) of the 35,000 sellers on Amazon have been on-boarded through Self Service Registration, which requires no intervention from Amazon; allows sellers to register, submit documents and list products online in 24 hours.
Service Provider Network, a third-party network of service providers empanelled by Amazon to help sellers launch, manage and grow their business, has grown from zero to 100 service providers in 40 cities who have collectively served over 4,000 sellers.
Chai CartAmazon Chai Cart, an initiative inspired by Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ which was first piloted in Panchkula in April, has visited 16 cities, covered 6,000 km across the country and touched 1,00,000 hyper local sellers, staged an entry into Bengaluru on Thursday.
Under this initiative, the company deploys three-wheeler mobile carts to navigate the city’s business districts and serve tea, coffee, cold water and lemon juice to business owners, sellers, retailers and SMEs.
Each cart has company-trained personnel who have conversations with interested sellers on the process of selling online and introduce them to seller-specific services offered by Amazon, such as Easy Ship and Fulfillment.
“So far we have had one-to-one conversations with 20,000 sellers via Amazon Chai Cart. The Chai Cart visits each city for three days and keeps in touch with the sellers thereafter through a toll-free number,” Rohit Kulkarni, Senior Manager – New Initiatives, Amazon India, told BusinessLine .
Some of the hyper local markets covered by the Chai Cart are Sadar Bazaar in Agra, Jalori Gate in Jodhpur, Palarivattom in Kochi, Sindhi Bazaar in Udaipur, Ring Road Textile Market in Surat, and Ladowali Road Market in Jalandhar.
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