Amazon announces Smart Commerce initiative to bring local shops online

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 19, 2022

Amazon India aims to bring more local businesses online with its new ‘Smart Commerce’ initiative which the business launched at its annual summit Amazon Smbhav.

The e-commerce giant has already brought over 1.5 lakh local businesses online which are now selling on Amazon, the business announced at the summit, ET Bureau reported. The launch is part of Amazon India’s wider plan to digitise one crore Indian businesses by 2025. 
 
Smart Commerce is designed to help stores bring their offline operations online while ameliorating the in-store experience. Businesses create their own online storefronts and use Amazon’s system for logistics and digital payments, according to the business. 

“We are humbled by how neighbourhood stores from across India are taking advantage of our Local Shops on Amazon program to go online and grow their business, with over 1.5 lakh stores already selling on Amazon India within two years of launch,” said Amazon’s SVP for India and emerging markets Amit Agarwal, ET Online reported. “Today, we are excited to launch Smart Commerce that will enable any store to truly become a digital dukaan, and serve customers with the best of Amazon no matter where they are– in their physical store, directly through their own online storefront, or on Amazon.in. We are just getting started and remain committed to our pledge to digitise one crore small businesses by 2025.”

Next, Smart Commerce will release a set of solutions for billing and inventory management. Amazon India is also working on enabling voice and chat-based shopping features.