While Amazon India has been saddled with losses in the country, its Amazon Business in the last 3 years has increased its total sales almost 4 times and its customer base has grown 5 times.
Amazon Business started in India in 2017 and had only 14,000 sellers but now it has over 6.5 lakh sellers. They are also the country's largest GST store with over 16 crore GST enabled products. The business makes it easier for the MSME's to make online procurement, reach wider customers and access tools to better manage procurement efficiently.
Talking about this, Suchit Subhas, Director, Amazon Business said, "This helps MSMEs save time and money by streamlining their procurement processes and providing them with insights to make informed purchasing decisions. We are able to deliver to 99.5% pin codes across the country by utilising our deeply penetrated network of fulfilment centres across India."
To better understand the reach of the business he gave more statistics that revealed that over 30 per cent of its customers and 25 per cent of their orders come from Tier II and Tier III cities. He went on to add, "In terms of sellers, Amazon has digitised 2.5 million MSMEs across the country. 90% of sellers on Amazon.in use Amazon’s logistics and warehousing services out of which over 50% of our sellers are from Tier II and below cities. We plan to sustain this momentum in the near future by catering to our existing and potential customers through our thought-led services."
Amazon Business to empower MSMEs
Subhas further added that the main goal of Amazon Business since its launch was to empower the MSMEs and offer them a one-stop destination with a wide range of business supplies, vast delivery network and competitive pricing. The Director said, "In the current MSME space, small and medium businesses face many gaps such as the latest technology and skills gap, how to scale and expand, how to grow revenues and how to get new consumers. This is where Amazon Business has been able to play a pivotal role in providing an opportunity for sellers to scale their reach and access to customers."
The business also understands the need for evolution and continues to add features like multi-user accounts, multi-address delivery on a single order and spend analytics. They even launched the Android and iOS mobile app last year to ensure that the sellers can quickly access the required data.
"Other than providing a range of benefits to our customers to help them save money our procurement solutions we also offer frequently purchased business supplies and products at wholesale prices to small and medium businesses including small office and home offices, educational institutes, kirana stores, hospitals, hotels, and restaurants," added Subhas.
Amazon Business evolves with technology
As the technology innovations keep getting better and better Amazon Business is also evolving to cater to the needs of the customers. The company has introduced features like 'Bill to Ship to' that enables their customers to claim GST credit on the billing address for their pan-India shipment.
"In addition to this, availability of cutting-edge features such as ‘Request for Quantity Discount’ and discounts on bulk purchase help sellers cater to lakhs of orders from businesses across the country," he said.
That is not the only benefit that he spoke about. He also said that Amazon Business provides post-purchase data analytics and system-based compliance policies that help the MSME's to understand business spending and plan for future supplies. These features help the MSME's reduce costs of indirect spends and also ensure transparent pricing.
