With consumers increasingly depending on online platforms to meet their needs, sellers are also signing up to make their products available to a larger population. Amazon says it has on-boarded 50,000 new sellers between mid-January and June, and seen a 40 per cent increase in search queries from businesses looking to launch on Amazon.

Gopal Pillai, V-P Seller Services, Amazon India, told BusinessLine that the new sellers are from previously untapped geographies, including Darbhanga in Bihar, Barmer in Rajasthan, Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, Hailakandi in Assam, and Bardhaman in West Bengal.

Amazon.in has over 6,00,000 sellers on its platform.

Lockdown disruption

The lockdown had initially thrown operations out of gear. “There was an impact initially as sellers were unable to deliver non-essential items. This impacted a lot of small businesses because some product deliveries were halted midway while others didn’t reach the customers. But more than 80 per cent of the sellers have come back on the platform in the first week of June,” Pillai said, adding that there has also been a spike in consumer demand.

According to a Nielsen report, in the FMCG segment, the cart value for new customers was 1.3x higher, and for existing customers, it was 1.5x times higher.

The report added that in the medium to long term, “Technology will be a basic need, on par with Roti, Kapda aur Makaan . There will be intensified integration of technology to minimise physical interactions across all activities. Shopping will see a surge in online adoption or larger baskets. There will be even more integration of online shopping and preference of retailers who understand and align with changing consumer needs.”

Local Shops scheme

To tap this trend, Amazon India launched a new programme called Local Shops earlier this year that allows local shopkeepers to scale up their reach with Amazon.in.

“More than 90 per cent of our sellers are SMBs and more than 50 per cent of those come from tier 2 and 3 cities,” Pillai said.

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