In recent years, Amazon.in has launched a handful of unique selling programs to empower India’s small and medium businesses as well as to help entrepreneurs kick start their retail ventures. Today we celebrate the success of India’s small sellers and local businesses who have led to the growth of these initiatives with their participation and enterprise. Somewhere along the way, Amazon’s seller programs have also transformed the lives of small sellers and artisans, helping to build a modern India.
Here we present four such successful initiatves that have helped women entrepreneurs, artisans of dying arts and crafts, and young entrepreneurs reach buyers across Amazon’s vibrant online marketplace.

KALA HAAT (now Amazon Karigar)


Kala Haat is a unique initiative to help revive the priceless arts and crafts of this culturally vibrant nation. With the enthusiastic participation of expert artisans from all corners of India, many of our vanishing handicraft traditions have found a fitting stage. Thanks to the platform, India’s rich weaves and intricate crafts have found patrons among local as well as global shoppers from around the world.
Amazon empowers at least weavers and artisans by linking them to customers across India, through its handloom store [Browse through the store]

AMAZON SELECT


The Amazon Select platform empowers small brand owners and young entrepreneurs with higher reach and visibility. Amazon Select is especially enabling for small manufacturers and brands that serve key customer gaps with relevant and unique products at attractive price points. The program is trying to develop long-term relationships with young brands by investing in tools and services that generate measurable value for their online businesses.

Through this unique seller initiative, young emerging brands find access to a suite of brand building tools and services that span their entire lifecycle, spanning discovery, consumer insights, brand building, and brand protection services… [Browse through the store]

AMAZON SAHELI


Amazon launched its special store for women entrepreneurs in November 2017. Today, women make and sell everything from diaries and notebooks to incense sticks, bread bins and men’s clothing to sarees on the Saheli marketplace. These products come from 13 partner NGOs around India that reach 80,000 women artisans across the length and breadth of the country.
Amazon Saheli has been set up in partnership with the pioneering social organisation, Self Employed Women Association (SEWA) and Impulse Social Enterprise among many others. The storefront offers the women entrepreneurs and artisans who work with these organizations access to the Amazon India marketplace, as well as to the logistical infrastructure of the e-commerce behemoth.

The program also provides tools and reports to help them save time and bandwidth on managing their online businesses and focus more on creativity and product innovation. [Browse through the store]

AMAZON LAUNCHPAD


Introduced in India in December 2016, Amazon Launchpad is a global program that curates, showcases, and delivers innovative, often quirky products from startups to millions of Amazon customers around the world. The central idea of the program is to solve the sales, marketing, and distribution challenges that many startups face in their early years.

With Amazon Launchpad acting as a platform for sales and marketing, startup teams are able to stay focused on product development and innovation. Today, the 300 startups hosted on Amazon Launchpad include categories like drugstore, wireless, electronics, grocery, beauty and wellness, PC and toys, among others. Over 50 of these startups have now moved on to become part of global Amazon Launchpad marketplaces with customers in US, UK, Germany, France, China, and Japan, in addition to India.

From 29 startups to 300 in 17 months, with the addition of 30 product categories, over 30,000 innovative products, and 50+ startups selling globally,the program has come a long way. [Browse through the store]