Amazon on April 23 shared that it has come up with a “Local Shops on Amazon” initiative. Amazon shares that the initiative will help local shops “supplement” footfalls with a digital presence. The program comes at a time when the e-commerce organizations have limited their supplies to essential items because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Amazon informed that it had conducted a pilot of the program for six months with over 5,000 local shops and retails across about 100 cities pan India.
For retailers
Retailers can join the “Local Shops on Amazon” program using their existing delivery mechanism. Retailers have the option to choose the areas where they can deliver the same or the next day. Retailers are also permitted to give value-added services such as installation support and product demo among others, the company said. Local shopkeepers can use the “Amazon Delivery App” to provide delivery updates to customers and Amazon.
Essential services
As e-commerce portals have limited their supplies to important products because of the COVID-19 lockdown. The restrictions were briefly eased before the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) re-imposed the limitations to ban the supply of non-essential items until the lockdown. Platforms such as Zomato have also included essential supplies as part of their offerings, for now.
Amazon’s India focus
India has continued to be one of the priority markets for Amazon. CEO Jeff Bezos pledged to invest $1 billion in the country to support small and medium businesses.
