Amazon’s ‘Small Business Days’ help sellers bounce back from COVID-19 economic dip

Amazon India’s efforts to help sellers bounce back from the economic downfall due to COVID-19 has seen great results. During the Amazon Small Business Days (SBD) event held between July 2 and 4, about 7,500 sellers received their highest single-day sale. (This is an increase of over 2.8x compared to the previous SBD, which was organized in December 2020.) Also, close to 15,500 sellers received at least a 2x spike in sales, as compared to their usual daily business.

During the three-day event, more than 84,000 sellers received at least one order, as customers from over 20,300 pincodes across the country shopped. Notably, there has been a 5.5x increase in the number of sellers who grossed over Rs.10 lakh, and 6x rise in the number of sellers who grossed INR Crore, compared to the previous SBD.

“As India tries to get back on track post the impact of the COVID-19 second wave, we are prioritizing our efforts to help small businesses, artisans, weavers, women entrepreneurs and small local offline shops to bounce back from the economic disruption,” said Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME & Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India. “Towards this, we hosted Amazon Small Business Days and extended the event from a single day to three days to help generate more business for our sellers and help them bounce back,” he added.

Compared to the previous SBD event, there has been a hike of 1.5x in the number of sellers who received orders – more than 84,000 in total. Interestingly, 68% of these sellers who received an order were from non-metro cities like Kodagu (Karnataka), Dholpur (Rajasthan), Eta (Uttar Pradesh), Giridh (Jharkhand), Una (Himachal Pradesh) and Tinsukia (Assam). The top-selling products include food processors, organic honey, laptop tables, weighing scales, blue-tooth earphones, yoga mats, face masks, jackfruit flour, onion-based hair-care products, among others.

Salman Mirza, who runs Heeba Gallery (for handcrafted wooden products) from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, says about his experience at the Amazon Small Business Days, “We witnessed a 15x spike during the event, registering orders from various states across India. Earlier, shops or exhibition was the major income source. But in the new normal where these are down, Amazon Karigar has been helping us grow through online sales.”

Not just online, even offline sellers have some happy stories to share. Says Vivek Singh of Nano Edge Collection, New Delhi, "We are an offline store and we have been selling online through Local Shops on Amazon program for last 1 year. We participated in Amazon Small Business Days this year – a huge thanks to customers for opening their hearts to a business like ours and helping us recover from what has been a tough couple of months. We saw a 6X spike vs our usual order volume. Getting orders from so many pin codes is extremely encouraging,”

Vivek is among the 1700 offline sellers from 23 states that received orders during this event. In fact, 28% of the sellers who participated in the SBD were from tier 2 cities and beyond. Organic tulsi tea, fresh flowers, and inverters are among the most shopped products from these local sellers.

Amazon Karigar sellers – including artisans, weavers, NGOs, and government emporiums selling handloom and handicrafts – also had a field day during the SBD event – with more than 100 Karigar sellers witnessing 2x growth, and more than 40 grew by 5x during the sale.

Among Amazon Saheli sellers – who are small scale women entrepreneurs – also got great sales during the three days. Sultana Shanas, owner of Spicy Carte from Alappuzha, Kerala, says, “We deal mainly in grocery category and have seen a 1.6x growth during Small Business Days. Being mainly in grocery, we were very hesitant to expand to new areas at first; however, with inputs from the Saheli team, we have expanded to new categories like apparel accessories and have seen a very good response from customers during Small Business Days. Our products, especially, Cashew Nut 4 Pieces (Tukda Kaju) has grown 2.8x during this Small Business Day vs. average sales day.”

More than 750 sellers from Amazon Launchpad – a program that aims to accelerate small businesses with growth potential – also received orders from the customers during the SBD event. Protective face masks from Asgard and topping sauces from Wingreen Farms were among the most bought products from them.

The Amazon Prime Day event, to be held on 26^th and 27^th this month, is also expected to help boost the sales for SMBs further.