Amazon Business launches in India, aims to do what Alibaba did for China 20 years ago

Amazon is now doing in India what Alibaba did in China 20 years ago – creating an online marketplace for exporters in the country to trade with the world. Named Amazon Business, this B2B selling platform is an extension of the Amazon Global Selling Programme.

This programme is already present in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, and recently, France. Now Indian exporters/ B2B sellers can register on any of these Amazon marketplaces individually and export to these five countries. Other marketplaces do not have Amazon Business.

Amazon claims the programme, which piloted last year in India, has already onboarded 2,000 B2B exporters. India’s largest B2B online marketplace, Indiamart, which was established 20 years ago, is the only major player in this sector. Startups like Glocal Bazaar have started coming up in the space by following different products.

Amazon Business’ sellers have product categories including home, PCs, scientific supplies etc. The advantage for these exporters is that they get access to not just small and medium enterprises in foreign markets, but also customers like Fortune 50 Companies like Siemens, along with Stanford University and John Hopkins University, among others.

Talking to media representatives in Bengaluru, Amazon B2B Marketplace VP Peeyush Nahar said,

“Our Global Selling Programme simplified the complexities of global trade and helped Indian sellers showcase their tremendous strengths in quality products across the world. This programme has been traditionally targeting B2C customers and has witnessed fantastic growth. We are extremely happy to expand the scope of our Global Selling Programme in India for B2B customers.”

According to Peeyush, the exporters participating in this programme will be given discounted commissions depending on the number of orders, Amazon customer service, logistics management with FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon), business price and quantity discount exclusively to business customers, and single selling account for both B2B and B2C selling (making it easier to manage inventory), among other benefits.

Amazon, which calls itself the most customer obsessed company in the world, built the B2B platform the US in 2015.

Gopal Pillai, GM and Director, Seller Services, Amazon India, who was also present at the briefing, said, “Since its launch in 2015, Amazon’s global selling programme has opened new market segments for Indian B2C product exporters across India by giving them easy and convenient access to Amazon’s worldwide customer base. At present, over 32,000 exporters offer over 90 million made-in-India products to customers across Amazon’s 10 global marketplaces. As we continue to witness continued demand for made in India products across the globe, we believe this is an opportune time to further strengthen the programme to enable Indian exporters access to both B2C and B2B market in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Japan.”

However, exporters from these five countries will not be able to sell B2B to India at present.