Amazon has strengthened its commitment to India’s digital economy and e-commerce exports by announcing a slew of initiatives at Amazon Smbhav 2023, its flagship small business summit, in New Delhi today.
“We are focused on investing long-term in physical and digital infrastructure and building cutting edge technology solutions to serve customers and enable Indian businesses to scale and grow in India and globally, thus contributing to India’s rising digital economy,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP India & Emerging Markets, Amazon. In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s state visit to the U.S in June 2023. Subsequently, Amazon announced an incremental investment of $15 billion in India across all its businesses by 2030.
Here’s everything you need to know about the key announcements Amazon made at Smbhav 2023 today.
Simplifying cross-border logistics with India Post’s reach
Combining India Post’s nationwide reach, their Dak Niryat Kendras and Amazon’s investments in technology, logistics and infrastructure, will lower the entry barrier for Indian entrepreneurs to leverage the exports opportunity. This collaboration will simplify cross-border logistics and compliance for Indian exporters shipping directly to customers around the world. Indian exporters on Amazon’s Global Selling program will be able to book their shipments, print shipping labels and pay for shipping directly from their seller central account. They will be able to drop these shipments to 100+ Dak Niryat Kendras across India, from where the consignments will be exported to overseas customers.
India Post’s Dak Niryat Kendras have been designed to empower small businesses across India and boost their share in India’s overall exports. We are happy to work with Amazon to lower the entry barrier for lakhs of Indian small businesses to leverage the ecommerce exports opportunity.
India Post and Amazon unveiled a commemorative postal stamp at Smbhav 2023. The stamp celebrates the decade-long partnership between Amazon and India Post in reaching out to customers in 100% of India’s serviceable pin codes. The stamp also showcases different transportation modes that Amazon uses to ship products from sellers on its marketplace to customers across India.
Speed up deliveries with Indian Railways dedicated freight corridors
Amazon India engages with Indian Railway’s Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFC) for faster movement of customer packages. Amazon India’s association with DFC will enable more sustainable modes of transport and faster and reliable delivery of customer packages. Amazon India has already started operations with DFC on the 659 km long Rewari-Palanpur (Haryana-Gujarat) route. As the DFC network expands over the next few years, Amazon India will add and utilise new freight railway routes and capabilities of DFC. Indian Railways has set up the DFC to decongest existing rail network, increase average speed of freight trains, enable operations of heavy haul trains, link existing ports and industrial areas for faster movement of freight, and reduce the overall cost of the logistics. “Dedicated Freight Corridor is designed to build additional capacity and guarantee efficient, reliable, and safe mobility options. I would like to congratulate Amazon India for further strengthening its longstanding association with Indian Railways and being the first e-commerce company in India to transport customer packages using DFC,” said Jaya Verma Sinha, Member, Operations and Business Development, Railway Board, Indian Railways said.
The faster speeds, efficiency, and reliability of DFC will help Amazon India with efficient and timely movement of customer packages through freight railway routes across the country.
Multi-channel fulfillment: Amazon opens its logistics for D2C brands
D2C brands across India will now be able to leverage Amazon's logistics and supply chain capabilities to serve customer orders from various sales channels, including their own websites. Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) makes it easier for sellers to reach more customers by using Amazon's delivery network, which covers 100% of India's serviceable pin codes. With MCF, sellers can let Amazon pick, pack, and ship their products to customers from Amazon fulfillment centers. This simplifies order management, tracking, tax invoicing, and shipping, regardless of where the order comes from. It frees up entrepreneurs to focus on their core businesses, such as product development, marketing, and customer service.
Amazon सह-AI: Breaking barriers to e-commerce adoption
To break down barriers to ecommerce adoption for lakhs of small businesses and ease their ecommerce journey, Amazon will introduce a first of its kind generative AI-based personal digital assistant called 'Amazon सह-AI’. Amazon सह-AI leverages Amazon’s experience of working with millions of sellers in India and globally to provide personalised assistance to new and existing sellers on its marketplace. This personal assistant provides highly customised support to sellers on Amazon.in and reduces their workload by simplifying time-consuming and complex steps such as registration, listing and advertising support, among others.
All 5 announcements will help unlock the infinite possibilities for a Digital India.
For lakhs of small businesses across India, digitisation can offer economic growth, broader customer reach, reduced marketing & distribution expenses, and access to foreign markets
Amazon’s pledges in India
Amazon recently announced an update on its pledges to digitise MSMEs, enable exports, and create jobs. Amazon has digitised over 6.2 million MSMEs, enabled nearly $8 billion in exports, and created 1.3 million+ jobs in India since inception. “As we get closer to delivering on our India Pledges to digitise 10 million MSMEs, enable $20 billion in cumulative exports and create 2 million direct and indirect jobs in India, we remain excited about the long-term opportunity in India,” said Manish Tiwary, Country Manager India Consumer Business, Amazon India.
Amazon's support for nature-based projects in Asia-Pacific
Amazon is allocating $15 million for nature-based projects in the Asia-Pacific region from its $100 million Right Now Climate Fund. The Fund was established in 2019 to support projects that enhance climate resilience, biodiversity, and social benefits in the communities where Amazon operates. The first project will aim to plant 300,000 trees in the Western Ghats – creating carbon sinks as well as enhancing livelihoods and wildlife conservation. The Western Ghats is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and home to more than 30% of all of India’s wildlife species, including the world’s largest population of wild Asian elephants and tigers.
