Amazon launches 'Local Shops' for neighbourhood stores to go online, pledges Rs 10 Cr

Amazon India, on Thursday, announced the launch of Local Shops on Amazon. The programme will use the ecommerce giant's technology, enablement capabilities, and training to power local shops across India to sell online.

"In a first for Amazon anywhere in the world, we will use our technology, training and enablement capabilities to power local shops across India to sell online," said Gopal Pillai, VP, Seller Services, India in an official blogpost.

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The programme aims to help the consumer source products from local stores in their city online. A statement shared by the company said that Amazon will help the local shopkeepers supplement their footfalls with their digital presence and expand beyond their normal reach.

"Recognising the urgent need during these times, we are pledging Rs 10 crore to immediately expand our pilot to onboard and train any motivated retailer or shopkeeper who is ready to lean forward with us in this exciting journey," said Gopal in the blog.

The press statement added local shops and retails of any size from any part of the country across multiple categories can join and benefit from the programme by using Amazon's existing delivery mechanisms to deliver to customers faster. 

"This is expected to be a win-win, as customers benefit from access to greater selection, faster deliveries, and additional value-added services, and local shops can transform themselves into digital stores," said the statement.

Local Shops with Amazon also allows the shopkeepers to choose the areas where they can deliver in the same or the next day, 'with pin-code level granularity.'  

"Local Shops can to use the newly launched ‘Amazon Delivery App’ to provide accurate delivery updates to customers and Amazon, and all shipments are tracked on a daily basis on key metrics to ensure customers get what they were promised," said the official statement.  

The programme also helps the local stores to build trust with the customers in their city by providing additional value-added services like product demonstration, installation support, easy customisations, and device data transfer among others. 

In case they want to expand their serviceable areas within the city or nationally, they can choose to work with Amazon to fulfil their orders.

The company is said to have piloted this programme for six months with over 5,000 local stores across 100 cities in India. These retailers come from cities such as — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Surat, Indore, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Faridabad, Kota, and Varanasi.

The category of sellers include — kitchen, home, furniture, apparel, automotive, beauty, sports, grocery, electronics, toys, jewellery, appliances, among others.