Offline Retailers & Neighbourhood Stores Embrace Technology to Become Digital Entrepreneurs

Today, more than 50,000 offline retailers and neighbourhood stores from 450 cities, from metros and tier II and III cities like Sangli, Osmanabad, Jamnagar, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Ratlam, Bikaner, Tumkur, Jalpaiguri, Ernakulum, Kanchipuram, Patna, Rajkot, Agra, Dehradun, etc. have joined the Local Shops on Amazon and offer customers in their cities a wide range of products including fresh flowers, home and kitchen products, furniture, electronics, books and toys amongst others.

Customers in these cities can log on to Amazon India's website and shop from some of their favorite local stores in their cities, get deliveries the same/ next day and also benefit from value-added services offered by these stores.

Local Shops on Amazon have witnessed success through different Amazon sale events benefiting from enhanced visibility and increased customer demand. Over 20,000 Local Shops participated in Amazon.in’s Great Indian Festival hosted in October 2020 and got orders from nearly 1,000 pin-codes.

During Amazon Small Business Day in December 2020, a number of Local Shops on Amazon sellers witnessed a sales spike of 2X. Most recently, Local Shops on Amazon sellers participated in the ‘Great Republic Day Sale’ hosted in January 2021 and received orders from over 700 pin codes and some of the most bought products from customers included Orthopedic Mattresses, Organic Tea, DTH connections and Tubular Batteries.

Manish Tiwary, VP, Amazon India, said, “What started as a pilot, has now become a pan-India phenomenon enabling local businesses to come online and benefit from technology adoption and e-commerce. The encouraging response to the Local Shops on Amazon program reflects in the rapid scale-up of the program to 50,000+ sellers in less than one year of launch. It underlines how digital enablement and digital inclusion can help them scale and contribute to a digital economy. We remain committed to work closely with the millions of MSMEs including the vast network of neighborhood stores across the country as part of our focus on transforming the way India buys and sells.”

Launched in April 2020, the program brings the benefits of e-commerce to offline retailers and neighborhood stores. It helps supplement the existing footfalls at their stores with a digital presence on Amazon.in and expands their reach beyond the normal catchment. With Local Shops on Amazon, customers can discover products from local shops in their city (many they already trust and love!) from the convenience of their homes while helping local shops transform into digital stores. Local Shops on Amazon has played a key role in helping sellers across India sustain their livelihoods and jumpstart their business amidst the unprecedented pandemic.