Amazon India launches peer mentorship programme Saathi

Ecommerce major Amazon India on Tuesday announced the launch of Amazon Saathi, a peer mentorship programme that will help sellers to exchange knowledge and share best practices.

Amazon Saathi enables sellers on Amazon and small and medium businesses (SMBs) across India to get access to a wealth of content presented by experienced sellers on the marketplace, a statement said.

Established Amazon sellers can engage with over seven lakh sellers to share their learnings and experiences of operating an online business, and help the seller community scale their businesses on Amazon, it added.

"We remain committed to enable every motivated seller to reach customers across India and the world, and our approach from Day 1 has been centred on what our sellers need. We are launching Amazon Saathi after a lot of research and feedback from sellers on having a platform for knowledge sharing and networking amongst them," Amazon India Director MSME and Seller Experience Pranav Bhasin said.

Amazon Saathi brings over seven lakh sellers on Amazon.in together as a community, where new and existing sellers can lean on their peers for guidance, and share from their experiences to accelerate their business growth on Amazon, he added.

Over the last eight months, Amazon ran a pilot with over 50 active Saathi mentors who have interacted with over 41,000 aspiring and existing entrepreneurs across India, resulting in enthusiastic responses and feedback shared by their fellow peers.

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During the pilot, Amazon leveraged online events and hangouts, blogs, articles, and social media communities to bring insightful content in English and other Indian languages across various topics to help sellers learn the nuances of online selling accelerate their business, the statement said.

Amazon trained and coached the seller mentors on writing, speaking, and presentation skills to help them mentor the seller community, it added.

As part of the launch, Amazon will host 'Amazon Saathi: Meet and Greet 2020', a two-day virtual event on December 16 and 17. The event will have a 'speed mentoring' format, which will enable SMBs to virtually interact with Amazon Saathi mentors over the two days.

Sellers interested in volunteering to mentor other sellers on Amazon can apply to become a Saathi on the Amazon Saathi website.

Amazon India stated that Saathi sellers who volunteer to mentor their peers do not receive any financial incentive and the initiative is primarily focused on sharing knowledge for the benefit of the overall community.