Amazon strengthens its India commitment; announces new initiatives to boost India’s digital economy and exports

 Signs MoU with India Post to simplify cross border logistics for MSME exporters
 Becomes the first ecommerce company to partner with Indian Railways’ Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFC) for faster deliveries of seller orders to customers
 To introduce ‘Amazon सह-AI’ – a generative AI powered personal digital assistant, to break down barriers to ecommerce adoption for MSMEs
 Opens its fulfilment capabilities for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands with Multi Channel Fulfilment (MCF)
 These announcements follow Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s meeting with Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his state visit to the US in June, 2023
New Delhi: “We are excited about the growth and the long-term potential in the Indian market and the opportunity to serve millions of consumers and sellers in India. We had recently announced an incremental investment of $15 billion in India across all our businesses by 2030 and will continue to be a partner in India’s growth in the 21st century”, said Amit Agarwal, SVP India & Emerging Markets, Amazon while sharing Amazon’s future outlook in India at the fourth edition of Amazon Smbhav Summit in New Delhi today. Amazon Smbhav is the annual thought leadership Summit hosted by Amazon that brings together policy makers, eminent industry leaders, startups and Amazon leadership for invigorating discussions on best ways to unlock the infinite possibilities for a Digital India.

At the event, Amazon announced a series of new initiatives to boost India’s digital economy and exports, in line with its India Pledges. Deepening its longstanding association with India Post and Indian Railways – backbone of India’s logistics and supply chain infrastructure – the company signed an MoU with India Post for an integrated cross border logistics solution that will expand the ecommerce exports opportunity to lakhs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country. Additionally, Amazon is engaging with Indian Railways’ Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFC) to enable its sellers deliver faster to their customers across India. This makes Amazon the first e-commerce company in India to leverage the DFC for shipping customer packages through freight railway routes in India. Amazon also announced that it will introduce a first of its kind generative AI based personal digital assistant for sellers called ‘Amazon सह-AI’ and opened its logistics and supply chain capabilities to direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands across India through multi-channel fulfilment capabilities. This will unlock the potential for small businesses, and D2C brands to manage all their inventory and order fulfilment for all their Amazon and off-Amazon businesses in one place.

India Post and Amazon unveiled a commemorative postal stamp at Smbhav’23. The stamp celebrates the decade-long partnership between Amazon and India Post in reaching out to customers in 100% serviceable pin codes in India. It showcases different transportation modes that Amazon uses to ship products from sellers on its marketplace to its customers across India.

“I congratulate Amazon on SMBhav 2023. I am delighted to know about Amazon’s commitment to digitizing 10 million MSMEs, enabling 2 million jobs, and driving $20 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025. For lakhs of small businesses across India, digitization can offer economic growth, broader customer reach, reduced marketing & distribution expenses, and access to foreign markets” said Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (I/C), MoS in the Prime Minister’s office, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Government of India

Manish Tiwary, Country Manager India Consumer Business, Amazon India, “As we get closer to delivering on our India Pledges to digitize 10 million MSMEs, enable $20 billion in cumulative exports and create 2 million direct and indirect jobs in India, we remain excited about the long-term opportunity in India. We are focused on investing long-term in physical and digital infrastructure and building cutting edge technology solutions to serve customers and enable Indian businesses to scale and grow in India and globally, thus contributing to India’s rising digital economy.”

Bringing together the best of Amazon and India Post to boost MSMEs led e-commerce exports
Combining India Post’s nationwide reach, their Dak Niryat Kendras and Amazon’s investments in technology, logistics and infrastructure, will lower the entry barrier for Indian entrepreneurs to leverage the exports opportunity. This collaboration will simplify cross-border logistics and compliance for Indian exporters shipping directly to customers around the world. Indian exporters on Amazon’s Global Selling program will be able to book their shipments, print shipping labels and pay for shipping directly from their seller central account. They will be able to drop these shipments to 100+ Dak Niryat Kendras across India, from where the consignments will be exported to overseas customers. Shri. Vineet Pandey Secretary, Department of Posts and Chairperson, Postal Services Board said, “India Post’s Dak Niryat Kendras have been designed to empower small businesses across India and boost their share in India’s overall exports. We are happy to work with Amazon to lower the entry barrier for lakhs of Indian small businesses to leverage the ecommerce exports opportunity.”

Amazon India engages with Indian Railway’s Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFC) for faster movement of customer packages
Amazon India’s association with DFC will enable more sustainable mode of transport and faster and reliable delivery of customer packages. Amazon India has already started operations with DFC on the 659 km long Rewari-Palanpur (Haryana-Gujarat) route. As the DFC network expands over the next few years, Amazon India will add and utilize new freight railway routes and capabilities of DFC. Indian Railways has set up the DFC to decongest existing rail network, increase average speed of freight trains, enable operations of heavy haul trains, link existing ports and industrial areas for faster movement of freight, and reduce the overall cost of the logistics. Ms. Jaya Verma Sinha Member, Operations and Business Development, Railway Board, Indian Railways said, “I would like to congratulate Amazon India for further strengthening its longstanding association with Indian Railways and being the first e-commerce company in India to transport customer packages using DFC. I hope and expect Amazon India to grow their partnership with Indian Railways manifold in the next few years”

‘Amazon सह-AI’ to ease the selling experience for millions of Indian MSMEs
To break down barriers to ecommerce adoption for lakhs of small businesses and easing their ecommerce journey, Amazon will introduce a first of its kind generative AI based personal digital assistant called ‘Amazon सह-AI’. Amazon सह-AI leverages Amazon’s experience of working with millions of sellers in India and globally to provide personalized assistance to new and existing sellers on its marketplace. This personal assistant provides highly customized support to sellers on Amazon.in and reduces their workload by simplifying time-consuming and complex steps such as registration, listing, advertising support amongst others.

Amazon opens its logistics and fulfilment infra for D2C brands with multi-channel fulfilment
D2C brands across India will now be able to leverage Amazon’s logistics and supply chain capabilities to serve customer orders from various sales channels, including their own websites. Multi-channel fulfilment democratizes customer order fulfilment and enables sellers to expand their reach by leveraging Amazon delivery network serving 100% of India’s serviceable pin-codes. With MCF, sellers can leverage Amazon’s fulfilment capabilities to pick, pack and ship products to the customer from the sellers’ inventory in Amazon fulfilment centers. This initiative simplifies order management, tracking, tax invoicing, and shipping, irrespective of the channel where the order comes from. It allows entrepreneurs to focus on core business activities such as product development, marketing, and customer service while Amazon handles order fulfillment.

A big step towards fulfilling Amazon’s commitment to India
As part of its commitment to India, Amazon has pledged to digitize 10 million MSMEs, generate $20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports and create 2 million jobs in India by 2025. Amazon is on track to fulfil these pledges and these announcements will play a key role in taking the company closer to its goal.