Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Amazon announces digital initiatives in UP for small businesses and MSMEs

The global e-commerce giant has signed two MOUs with the state government to provide local businesses and artisans greater access to markets
July 3, 2022
e-commerce for local businesses

Amazon India has announced a series of key initiatives to digitally enable lakhs of local stores, entrepreneurs, traders, artisans, and weavers across Uttar Pradesh (UP) and help them grow their business by selling to customers across India and the world. 

 The e-commerce giant signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Export Promotion, of the State at a loan mela in the presence of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Under the MOUs the company will train and onboard MSMEs from the state on its global selling programme and help them export their unique Made in India products to customers in over 200 countries and territories across the world.

Additionally, it will focus on bringing sellers registered under the one district, one product (ODOP) programme on Amazon.in and help them serve customers across India. The Chief Minister also officially launched Amazon’s first Digital Kendra in UP to accelerate digitisation of local stores and small businesses in Kanpur and nearby areas.

“Digitizing small businesses and boosting exports from the state are key focus areas for us and I would like to commend Amazon for launching initiatives that are aligned with our priorities. Our state departments will work closely with Amazon for the benefit of lakhs of entrepreneurs across Uttar Pradesh. I believe that initiatives like these can help them grow their business and also contribute to growing our state’s economy to $1 trillion by 2027. We are committed to making Uttar Pradesh an attractive business and investment destination,” said Yogi Adityanath. 

 Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India said“Our approach at Amazon has always been to use technology to empower local stores, entrepreneurs, and small businesses across India to scale up their business, catering to customers anywhere in India and the world using ecommerce. With this association with the Government of Uttar Pradesh and under the guidance and leadership of Yogi Aditya Nath, we aim to help lakhs of local businesses in the state to benefit from technology adoption and become digital entrepreneurs. These initiatives reflect our commitment to digitise 10 million small businesses including local stores and enable $20 billion in ecommerce exports from India by 2025.”

Amazon India also its first Digital Kendra in Uttar Pradesh in Barra 2 area of Kanpur. Amazon Digital Kendras are brick and mortar resource centres that will help digitise lakhs of local stores and small businesses from Kanpur and nearby areas and bring the benefits of ecommerce closer to them.

 It will provide them the opportunity to learn about benefits of coming online and avail of a range of third-party services such as shipping and logistics support, cataloguing assistance, digital marketing services, GST and taxation, support to kick start their journey towards being digital entrepreneurs. Amazon India will engage with local partners to set up and manage the Digital Kendras.

It will help provide local partners with additional revenue streams while playing an integral role in creating greater awareness and understanding of e-commerce, understanding the exports markets, and offering local stores and entrepreneurs the tools to grow their business. They can also avail of onboarding services if they are interested in registering as sellers on Amazon.in or engage with other Amazon programs such as Amazon Global Selling, Amazon Pay, Amazon Karigar, Amazon Saheli ‘I Have Space’, ‘Amazon Easy’ amongst others.

Amazon Global Selling lowers the entry barrier for motivated Indian MSMEs to expand their business and launch their brands globally, from anywhere in India. With this program, homegrown businesses get instant access to global markets, benefiting from Amazon’s distribution capabilities and global footprint to scale rapidly and build sustainable exports businesses.

Amazon has on board more than one lakh exporters from across India who are part of this program and who have surpassed $5 billion in cumulative exports from India. Thousands of these businesses have been able to create globally-loved brands from India through e-commerce exports.

Together with the Government of Uttar Pradesh, Amazon will train and onboard artisans, weavers and MSME sellers, registered under the ODOP program on Amazon’s Karigar program. The program was launched in 2016 to uplift the Indian handicraft and handloom sector by catalysing digitisation, skill development and market linkages for the artisans and weavers.

Amazon Karigar has launched over 450 unique art and craft forms from over 28 states and UTs. Over 30 state government emporiums and seven government bodies have collaborated with Amazon to reach customers across the country and the program impacts over 13 lakh weavers and artisans across India.

Amazon India has over one lakh sellers including more than 15,000 local neighbourhood stores on its marketplace.

Girja Shankar Kaura

The writer is a Delhi-based freelance journalist, who has reported and written on a wide range of subjects in an extensive career.