Amazon website launches in Hindi for Android, mobile site customers

Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of its e-commerce website in the Hindi language on Android and its mobile website, in a move to target customers beyond the metropolitans in India.

"Our aim is to ensure any customer can find anything they want on Amazon.in, anytime and anywhere, irrespective of the language they speak or where they come from. The launch of the Hindi shopping experience is a significant step towards bringing the next 100 million customers online," Manish Tiwary, vice-president (category management) said during the launch.

The Hindi version of Amazon.in will have the same features as available on it English website. Customers will be able to read detailed product information, find deals and discounts, manage their account information, track their orders and view order history in Hindi. The desktop version will be available soon.

Search and delivery address will be available in English only as of now as Amazon will develop this platform and launch more features in the coming months.

Amazon.in in Hindi is not a separate app but integrated within its main app. To use the service in Hindi, users will have to change the language under the settings menu. They can simply tap on the menu button on the left corner of the home page, scroll down and tap on 'English' language and select Hindi as the preferred language. Users can always change the language preference back to English.

Officials said Amazon doesn't have its entire portfolio of products in Hindi as yet and that the company is starting off with the most common items for its Hindi website. They said the company has carefully selected products that are most popular with its Hindi speaking customers.

Amazon plans to bring more languages to its website in the near future.

Reports said Amazon launched a new category of Alexa skills on August 14 that would enable customers to help the popular voice assistant learn Hindi and other Indian languages. They said users can teach Alexa by using the new "Cleo" skill more about Indian languages and culture by interacting with it.