Over 11K Offline Stores in Maharashtra Joined Amazon’s 'Local Shops' Program!

With the upcoming festive season in the country, major eCommerce companies are leaving no stones unturned for attracting local sellers and retailers. Acting upon its initiative to strengthen the local sellers and dealers, Amazon has announced the registration of over 11K offline retailers and neighborhood stores based in Maharashtra under its initiative ‘Local Offline Shops on Amazon.’ The initiative is helping local sellers to recover from their economic downfall caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and help them grow in the upcoming celebration season.

The initiative offers several eCommerce benefits for small sellers, retailers, and neighborhood stores. Through this new partnership, small traders and business people can maximize their footfalls in their offline stores while maintaining an impressive presence on Amazon India and reach out to the entire country to more and more customers.

How Will it Work? 

The initiative is focused on helping customers identify the relevant products in their neighborhood from the convenience of their homes while transforming the reach of the local stores. Through this new medium, local sellers can make the best use of their existing delivery mechanism to help customers find the desired products within no time. Besides banking upon the remarkable benefits from other fulfillment programs offered by Amazon, including Easy Ship and Seller Flex. 

The initiative aims to revolutionize the lives of millions of local sellers, retailers, and neighborhood stores to sustain in the ongoing tough economic situation and look for a better tomorrow through a combined approach. In addition, Amazon envisioned empowering small sellers and business people to cross geographical boundaries and race upto the endless economic sky of success.

Started in 2020, the initiative ‘ Local Shops on Amazon’ currently has over 75,000 registered offline retailers and neighborhood stores from over 450 cities, mostly from metros and tier II and tier III cities. In Maharashtra, the stores are of several towns, including; Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Thane, Kolhapur, Satara, and Sangli, among others. Offering a wide range of products, including fresh flowers, home, and kitchen products, electronics, toys, books, and furniture, these stores have unlimited potential to bestow customers.

Speaking on this new development, Vivek Somareddy, Director Fulfillment Channels at Amazon India, said, "We are happy to witness the rapid scale-up of the Local Shops on Amazon program across the country, including Maharashtra. Over 11K local offline stores in different parts of the country have been already registered and benefitting from Amazon’s new initiative in less than 18 months of its launch.”

“The encouragement from local sellers and retailers emphasized on the power of digital enablement as the company remained committed to bring more and more local sellers under this initiative and empower their business growth while providing them an access to reach out to a large customer base in different parts of the country and beyond for creating successful and powerful brands,” added Somareddy.

Notably, Amazon has announced its commitment to onboard 1 million offline retailers and neighborhood stores by 2025 through its initiative. The company aims at launching a new dedicated storefront on its marketplace to help customers identify their desired unique local selection available in different regional languages. In contrast, new provisions will be made for local sellers to participate in seasonal onsite sale events.