NE BUSINESS BUREAU
BENGALURU, SEPT 30
A large section of sellers are keen on investing in hiring staff and ramping up infrastructure ahead of the festive season, Amazon India said on Tuesday. Amazon India had commissioned Nielsen to conduct a study to gauge expectations of SMBs (small and medium businesses) sellers on Amazon from the upcoming festive season.
The study, conducted earlier this month, included responses from over 2,000 Amazon sellers from 17 cities, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Indore, and Rajkot.
About 89 percent of respondents said they expected to reach out to new customers, while 85 percent said they expected an increase in sales during the festive season. About 74 percent said they expected recovery of the business post the lockdown. “(About) 29 percent of the sellers surveyed are planning to make additional investments to have a successful festive season,” the survey said.
Of these, 59 percent said they are planning to invest in boosting inventory and warehousing, and 77 percent said they plan to invest in marketing related activities. From the sellers who will be selling during the festive season again this year, 75 percent expect an increase in sales, the survey said. “As we navigate the new normal, e-commerce is rightly placed to service customers in the safety of their homes, create new opportunities for businesses to reach a wider set of customers across India, and generate greater value for their products,” Amazon India VP Manish Tiwary said.
To be Honest’ is a Noida based 100% real fruit & veggie snacks brand that sells both offline and through eCommerce. The Co-Founder of ‘To Be Honest’, Ritika Agrawal says, “We have been associated with Amazon for over a year, and our presence on the marketplace helped us balance the disruption caused by the pandemic. With Amazon, we get orders from some of the remotest corners of the country which would otherwise have taken us years to achieve through the offline retail channel. During the lockdown, when traditional channels had seen a decline, we saw 3X growth in our Amazon sales. I feel the upcoming festive season will be extremely critical for the revival of Indian businesses. We are looking forward to launching a new range of products this festive season on Amazon and bounce back from the recent challenges.
Vinod Kumar President – India SME Forum said, “The Nielson survey indicates what we have been emphasising over the last 4 months, the importance of digital empowerment for MSMEs. For many of them, the coming festive season can be quite a boost, as they explore avenues like ecommerce for the first time towards ensuring safe purchasing and access to a wider market. We believe that with more and more customers preferring to shop safely online; the ability of MSMEs to attract consumers online, will be key for taking employment back to pre COVID levels and the recovery and success of the Indian economy.”
