Last year, at the inaugural Smbhav Summit held in January 2020, Amazon had announced an investment of $1 billion to digitally enable 1 Crore MSMEs, enable ecommerce exports worth $10 billion, and create 10 lakh additional jobs in India between 2020 and 2025. Since then, Amazon has helped create nearly 300,000 direct and indirect jobs in India, nearly 350,000 new sellers have joined Amazon.in and over 75,000 local offline retailers and neighbourhood stores from across the country are selling on Amazon.in.
Amit Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President and Country Head of Amazon India, said, “As we continue to work with small and medium businesses in our ecosystem, we remain committed to bringing new tools, technology and innovation that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian businesses, boost exports from the country, help create jobs at scale and contribute to the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. As the world around us is more digital than ever with the internet and technology becoming an integral part of our lives, we see a massive opportunity to empower millions of SMBs across the country and remain committed for Amazon to be a catalyst for such accelerated progress.”
25 lakh digitally enabled MSMEs
With a focus on simplifying online selling for small and medium businesses, Amazon introduced seller registration and account management services in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Kannada. More than 100,000 sellers have registered on the Amazon India marketplace in regional Indian languages.
Amazon’s ‘Local Shops on Amazon’ program launched April 2020 has grown 10 times since then and today over 75,000 offline retailers and neighbourhood stores from across the country are selling on Amazon.in. More than 25 lakh MSMEs work with Amazon in India including sellers, artisans & weavers, delivery & logistics service partners etc.
$3 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports through Amazon Global Selling
Amazon Global Selling is witnessing rapid momentum and today there are 70,000+ exporters on the program who have cumulatively crossed $3 billion in exports. There is a strong demand from global customers for a range of Made in India products including STEM toys, jewellery, bed linen, healthcare products, tea, leather products and others. It took the program 3 years to clock the first billion in cumulative exports, the second billion came in 18 months and the third one has taken just 12 months.
Indian exporters on Amazon Global Selling served customers across the world during the pandemic by leveraging Amazon’s technology and infrastructure. This helped them not only sustain and grow their business but also support thousands of people who directly and indirectly depended on them for livelihoods.
10 lakh direct and indirect jobs in India
The growth of exports and digital enablement of MSMEs is helping accelerate economic recovery for thousands of businesses to positively impact job creation as well as the overall economy. In a challenging year where saving livelihoods and creating new jobs was a top priority, Amazon helped create nearly 300,000 direct and indirect jobs across industries including information technology, skill development, content creation, retail, logistics, and manufacturing. This includes job roles in our corporate offices in diverse areas including Machine Learning and Software Development, direct and indirect jobs across our fulfilment centres, logistic centres, sales offices, data centres, and other indirect jobs we create through our ecosystem including sellers’ community. In total, Amazon has helped create over 10 lakh direct and indirect jobs in India since 2013 and is on track to create 20 lakh jobs by 2025.
