Want a plumber? Soon you can try Amazon

Soon plumbers, carpenters and doctors in India will be able to sell their services on e-commerce portal Amazon. The global e-commerce giant has already launched its services marketplace in select cities in the US and is expected to launch it in the Indian market in the next six months.

Amazon.com had launched the feature earlier this year in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle in a beta phase (limited release) and has extended it to nine other states there.

Asked about the India launch, a spokesperson for Amazon.in said the company did not comment on what it may or may not do in future.

But there is clearly a demand for such services in a market where hiring professionally trained handymen for small home-repair and maintenance jobs is a Herculean task.

At present, such services are available on an “on call” basis with firms such as JustDial and AskLaila providing customers with numbers of local service providers, whether it is for a handyman, painter, plumber, electrician, driver, babysitter or tutor.

However, as the demand for such services is growing in larger cities due to the time constraints faced by nuclear families and working couples, several start-ups are looking at this segment as a huge opportunity.

A few, including easyfix.com, theekkardo.com, myhomemaker.com, homeadvisor.com and indiamart.com, currently provide such services online on a smaller scale.

However, the channel is yet to grow as people still rely on local classified ads, friends and neighbours when they need a reliable person for such blue-collar services, which are unorganised.

According to experts, Amazon will help make such services more credible, reliable and organised.

Those selling such services online will be required to provide proper training, license and identity papers to the handymen. However, this may initially prove a challenge in a vast country like India, as such offerings have to be tailored to each city or region.

Amazon’s entry into the services space in India could also lead to desi e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal offering these services.

Kunal Bahl, founder of Snapdeal, in an earlier interview with BusinessLine, had expressed his interest in selling services online. At present, the portal sells a few services such as e-learning and hobby-related services.

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