Amazon's “Local Shops” initiative brought 50,000 local retailers on board

The company said that its ‘Local shops on Amazon’ which was launched last year, has helped its efforts to expand the network to 450 cities across the country.

Amazon says its "Local Shops" initiative has been successful.   (REUTERS)

As more e-commerce companies across the country move to bring local retailers onboard, industry giant Amazon has just announced it has managed to bring on a total of 50,000 retailers onto its network as part of its ‘Local shops on Amazon' program, across 450 cities across the country.

In a statement released on Sunday, the company said that its ‘Local shops on Amazon' which we reported when it launched last year, has helped its efforts to expand the network to 450 cities - not only metros but also tier 2 and tier 3 cities across the country such as Sangli, Osmanabad, Jamnagar, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Ratlam, Bikaner, Tumkur, Jalpaiguri, Ernakulum, Kanchipuram, Patna, Rajkot, Agra, Dehradun, the company stated.

Amazon says that the Local shops on Amazon sellers also benefitted from “enhanced visibility and increased customer demand” and that over 20,000 local shops took part in the Great Indian Festival hosted last October where they received orders from a thousand pin codes. Meanwhile, during the December 2020 sale, local shops saw a doubling in sales, while the Great Republic Day sale reportedly brought orders from 700 pin codes, the company stated.

“What started as a pilot, has now become a pan-India phenomenon enabling local businesses to come online and benefit from technology adoption and eCommerce. It underlines how digital enablement and digital inclusion can help them scale and contribute to a digital economy. We remain committed to work closely with the millions of MSMEs including the vast network of neighbourhood stores across the country as part of our focus on transforming the way India buys and sells,” said Manish Tiwary, Vice President of Amazon India in a statement.