Bangalore: To help sellers bounce back from the economic disruptions caused by the 2nd wave of COVID-19, Amazon India today announced that the company will host Amazon Small Business Days (SBD) starting from midnight on July 2, 2021, until 11:59 pm on July 4, 2021. The three-day online sale event helps generate customer demand for the unique and differentiated selection of products offered by lakhs of sellers, manufacturers, start-ups and brands, women entrepreneurs, artisans & weavers, and local shops.
During the three-day sale event, customers will have the opportunity to discover and purchase as well as enjoy deals and offer on products across categories including immunity boosters, monsoon essentials, at-home fitness supplies, regional handicrafts, etc. among many more from the special themed stores on the marketplace. Whether customers are looking to purchase Work from Home essentials, comfort food or heritage handloom weaves straight from regional weavers, Small Business Days will have the widest selection on offer for everyone. Customers can save more with a cashback offer of up to 10% powered by A-pay and on other forms of digital payments for purchases made from participating small businesses.
“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 bounce back from the economic disruption. Towards this, we are hosting Amazon Small Business Days, to help generate customer demand for offerings from small sellers on the Amazon India marketplace thus helping them to get their business back on track,” said Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME & Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India. “Customers will be able to discover thousands of unique products from local shops, women entrepreneurs, start-ups, emerging brands, artisans, and weavers, at a great value, making their shopping experience enjoyable,” added Pranav Bhasin.
“MSMEs are the backbone of our economy, contributing to nearly 30% of the country’s GDP and half of its exports. Around 6 crore MSME units across the country employ over 11 crore persons. MSMEs contribute significantly to the socio-economic growth of the country by fostering entrepreneurship and generating large employment opportunities. I believe that technology will play a key role in the success of MSMEs, and in increasing the contribution of MSMEs share to the country’s GDP. It is important to accelerate the growth of MSMEs especially after the disruptions caused by COVID-19 and I congratulate Amazon for hosting Small Business Day to help generate customer demand for their products and revive livelihoods of lakhs of MSMEs in the country,” Shri. Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India
As a business-friendly marketplace, Amazon Business has always aimed to empower MSMEs as a one-stop destination with over 20 Cr GST enabled products across top categories to cater to their distinct business needs. During this Small Business Day, Amazon business customers can expect to avail of deals from sellers with 5% to 10% off and an additional 5% off when buying 2 or higher quantities. Customers can enjoy these top deals and offer from sellers on a wide range of products across laptops, headphones, printers, appliances, office supplies, and more. These savings are over and above the 28% savings, they will receive with GST invoices. Amazon Business customers can also access four specially curated thematic stores for COVID-19 protection essentials, ‘Work from Home’ supplies, ‘Back to Work’ requirements, and weekly replenish cycle products for hassle-free product discovery and shopping experience.
Sellers from across the country witnessed great success during the last edition of Small Business Day, which was held in December 2020. As part of the sale event, over 55,000 sellers received an order from over 4000 pin codes all over India. 63 percent of these sellers were from non-metro cities. Close to 2,000 sellers witnessed some of their highest sales ever during the event. Customers from over 100 cities shopped safely from their neighborhood stores on Amazon.in availing of the benefits of the Local Shops on Amazon program. Sellers from programs like Karigar, Saheli, and Launchpad have seen the growth of 2.1X, 4.5X, and 1.7X respectively.
“The past few months have been challenging for our business because of COVID-19 and the on-ground restrictions it brought along, but going by the success we achieved during Small Business Day in 2020 where we sold more than 2000 units of pure unprocessed honey that helped revive our business, we are looking forward to Amazon Small Business Day 2021 to delight more customers with our products, grow our business and help revive lives of the rural & tribal folks from the lush Mangroves of Sundarbans of Kultali, West Bengal,” said Pralay Samanta, Kultali Sundarban, Banaraksha Bahumukhi SS Ltd.
Small Business Days 2021 is a sale event part of Amazon India’s efforts to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sellers. Over the past few months, with the onset of the second wave of the pandemic in India, Amazon has taken a host of measures to help sellers including a variety of fee waivers, relaxation of policies on reimbursements and performance metrics, and more.. Amazon is also providing vaccination support to its sellers and their dependents. In addition, Amazon has also enabled an ‘on-demand disbursement’ feature that enables sellers to get their disbursements daily to help sellers navigate the economic challenges during these challenging times.
