Local shops rely on Amazon to expand beyond their neighbourhoods

The ubiquitous local stores in the nook and crannies of Indian cities have been a melting pot of emotions and are more than just places to get our daily needs. With their own specialties, these shops have carved out distinct identities in our lives. With festivities in the air, these local shops become the go-to place for all things insignificantly significant - from the little incense sticks and the best of sarees to gifts, dry fruits and more. Today, over 2 lakh local stores from 350 cities across India are selling on Amazon.in as part of the Local Shops program. This includes sellers from top metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities such as Sangli, Osmanabad, Jamnagar, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Ratlam, Bikaner, Guwahati, Howrah, Tumkur, Jalpaiguri, Ernakulam, Kanchipuram, Patna, Rajkot, Agra and Dehradun. Launched in 2020, the program has rapidly scaled with the number of total sellers on the program doubling since the same time last year. Amazon has pledged to onboard 10 lakh local stores on Amazon.in by 2025 as part of this program.

Amazon has also introduced an enhanced seller storefront for Local Shops on Amazon sellers, providing a browse-friendly online identity. Customers can access this storefront via shop-based widgets and upon visiting the storefront, they can search for products within the store, browse-by category to shop, check seller ratings and more.

Speaking about the opportunities for local shops during Great India Festival 2022, Vivek Somareddy, Director, Fulfillment Channels at Amazon India said, “This festive season, our focus continues to be on sellers potentially maximizing their success while endeavoring to provide our customers unmatched value and the convenience of shopping from anywhere, anytime. We are inspired to see the rapid pace of technology adoption by local stores to grow their business. We had started Local Shops on Amazon as an experiment in 2020 and today it has become a nationwide phenomenon with over 2 lakh sellers.

Symbolic to the Indian culture, sarees have been a staple outfit during traditional Indian festivals. This simple yet elegant attire never goes out of style. There is always one legendary store in every city, renowned for having the best sarees in town. One such store is Wooden Tant in Kolkata, West Bengal. They have been in the saree business since 1980s and about five years ago also started producing Jamdani and handloom sarees. Wooden Tant started their online journey with Amazon in 2017 and joined the Local Shops on Amazon program in 2020. Today, Wooden Tant has been selling to customers across the country. Tamalika Sarkar, Founder of Wooden Tant says, “We came onboard the Local Shops on Amazon program about two years ago. Today we aren’t just serving our loyal customers who come to our store in Kolkata but also receive a lot of customers online. We have witnessed almost 3X spike in our overall business, thanks to Amazon.”

Festivals are a time to feast on desserts. A sweet shop in Mumbai is reimagining a gamut of traditional Indian mithais in a contemporary and fun format. From the sheer diversity and delectable range of Indian sweet treats and contemporary Indian snacks or namkeen, Bombay Sweet Shop moulds the familiar taste into something delightfully experimental and delicious. With Amazon’s wide reach, Bombay Sweet Shop went digital in January 2022. Upon joining the Local Shops on Amazon program, Bombay Sweet Shop started deliveries across India. Speaking about their Amazon journey, co-founders Yash Bhanage and Sameer Seth say, “We started with deliveries only in the city of Mumbai. Amazon not only helped us introduce our brand to a wider audience and new set of customers across the country, but also to adapt and make necessary changes to our existing offerings and packaging to make our products shipping friendly for long distances.

Further, Amazon India has enabled them to work with existing product stock availability - without producing and investing in huge stocks. “As a growing D2C brand, it also allows us to tell the story of our brand using our own packaging and branding,” Bhanage and Seth say. Bombay Sweet Shop has been growing nearly 50% over the last few months with orders pouring in from Mumbai to Guwahati and Kangra to Kochi.

There is something carnival-like about Indian homes during the festive season—people decorate their homes to make them look beautiful and jubilant. Bharath Art and Craft, a local shop in Bengaluru, Karnataka, is selling and delivering its art supplies and decoratives across Bengaluru and many other cities through Amazon. Roshan Kumar, founder, Bharath Art and Craft says, “We turned to Amazon when our business saw a financial setback, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon after joining, we started receiving orders from all over India.” Kumar decided to join Local Shops on Amazon in February 2022. Since then, he has fulfilled over 6,000 orders over the last one year and has seen a potential growth of 70% in overall business.