Amazon India Launches City-Specific Platform for Small Sellers

The company has unveiled a city-specific platform in Bengaluru for small sellers and home entrepreneurs planning to foray into online selling.

India: Amazon India has recently launched a service in Bengaluru, which allows home entrepreneurs and small sellers in fashion jewelry and ethnic-apparel space to display their products online to buyers within the city. This service also includes peer-to-peer sale of pre-owned products, using the ‘sell as an individual' option.

The company has currently opened the registration for individual sellers as well as home entrepreneurs in the fashion accessories and ethnic apparel categories and plans to include home décor and other categories in future. With this launch, company is targeting its competitors such as Voonik.

Further, these products will be delivered within three to five days and the methods of payment will remain similar to what is offered on the Amazon India website, including cash on delivery and Amazon Pay. This city-based service is expected to enable the small sellers by leveraging discoverability on the Amazon platform with a fixed fee structure, starting at USD.15 (INR10) as commission for transaction below USD15.38 (INR1,000). Moreover, the central arm of the US-headquartered Amazon, Amazon Seller Services, has received an infusion of USD309.23 million in December last year, to take on domestic competitors like Flipkart and Snapdeal.

According to TechSci Research, Amazon India’s decision is seen as a part of business growth strategy. With company’s presence in grocery, fresh produce, add-on services, peer-to-peer selling and a city-specific platform, Amazon India is building a business model to increase repeat transactions and leverage its Prime membership service for same-day and next-day delivery. The country’s e-commerce market is forecast to witness staggering growth on the back of increasing working population and growing number of middle class households, which is expected to reach around 53 million by the end of 2015, and is further anticipated to double by 2025.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “India E-commerce Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020”, the country’s e-commerce market is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 36% during 2015-2020. E-services segment, which comprises online travel, online payments, online classifieds, etc., is expected to continue its domination through 2020. However, the e-tail segment that includes electronics, apparels & accessories, health and personal care, etc., is expected to witness significantly higher market growth compared to e-services segment over the next five years. During 2015-20, the western region is expected to remain the largest e-commerce market in the country. Major players operating in India’s e-tail market include Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.