In a major step towards breaking the language barrier for millions of Indian entrepreneurs, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), local shops and retailers to benefit from ecommerce, Amazon today announced that sellers will be able to register on Amazon.in marketplace and manage their online business starting with Hindi. This includes everything from registering as an Amazon seller for the first time to managing orders, inventory management and accessing performance metrics – all of it in the language of their preference. The experience has been made available on the Amazon seller website as well as on the mobile app. Amazon also provides Seller Support Services and Seller University videos and tutorials in Hindi.
Thousands of Amazon sellers from Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh have switched to the Hindi experience to manage their accounts during the six-months testing phase. During the testing phase, for the first time new sellers from markets like Darbhanga in Bihar, Barmer in Rajasthan, Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, Hailakandi in Assam and Bardhaman in West Bengal signed up on the Amazon.in marketplace.
According to Gopal Pillai, VP Seller Services, Amazon India, “From Day 1, we have always operated with a focus on enabling every motivated seller anywhere in the country to reach customers across India and every country in the world. As we look at enabling more and more of Indian MSMEs to embrace ecommerce to grow, we continue to double down our efforts on vernacular, voice and video powered initiatives. The launch of the vernacular registration and account management experience for sellers starting with Hindi is a step in that direction.” He adds “This becomes all the more significant today as businesses emerge from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and explore new opportunities for growth.”
Amazon Sellers who wish to change their preferred language can change it in a few simple steps on both Amazon’s Seller website and Seller mobile app. Sellers registering through the Desktop can change their preferred language by accessing the ‘language drop-down’ available on every page, at the top-right corner. On the Seller App, the language can be changed through the language drop-down on the bottom left corner while registering and through the App ‘Settings’ menu. Once the language is changed, sellers can view all pages and workflows in Hindi.
India has been innovating to expand the ecommerce opportunity to both customers and businesses in the areas of Vernacular, Voice and Video enabled initiatives for the past few years. Amazon Prime Video makes titles available in Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi and Bengali in addition to English. Users can browse through Prime Video experience in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in addition to English. Authors can self-publish their work on Kindle Direct Publishing in five Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati in addition to English. Amazon Alexa, a cloud-based voice service that powers Echo range of smart speakers, also understands proper nouns in various languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu etc. With the launch of Alexa in Hindi, customers can ask questions and interact with Alexa in Hindi or Hinglish, in addition to English. In March this year, Alexa was also available on the Amazon shopping app for Android devices to help users shop for items via voice.
Customers on Amazon.in can choose Hindi as their preferred language while shopping. They can speak to Amazon Customer Service executives in 5 Indian languages that include English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. Similarly, Amazon’s 6 lakh+ sellers can benefit from seller support services provided in 5 Indian languages. In fact, more than 50% of calls received by seller support in the 1st two weeks since launch were from sellers who speak in Hindi. Furthermore, through Seller University’s library of 700 videos in 5 Indian languages, current and new sellers are assisted to enroll, manage and grow their business profitably. With the launch of the seller experience in Hindi, millions of SMBs and MSMEs across India can enjoy the ease and convenience of registering and managing their business on the Amazon India marketplace in their preferred language starting with Hindi.
