Amazon has invested $6.5 billion to launch smart commerce in India to help offline stores across India to launch their own digital storefronts, a move that will see them serve their customers better. The service has already attracted 125,000 neighbourhood stores that are already selling on their marketplace.
Amazon says, “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.”
Smart Commerce was first launched two years ago to help neighbourhood outlets serve their walk-in customers and later launched local shops a program that allows offline stores to sell directly on Amazon. Smart commerce in India will offer a range of features to stores including the ability to digitize billing, and manage inventory, as well as a voice and chat-based shopping experience, the firm said. It will start to roll out some of these features in the coming weeks.
Stores of any size can sign up on Amazon Smartcommerce and go online with their business. Amazon will provide the store with logistics and digital payments.
“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 within two years of launch,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP of India and Emerging Markets at Amazon in an event according to Techcrunch.