Amazon Launches Smart Commerce to Turn Local Stores into 'Digital Dukaans'

Amazon India has announced the launch of Smart Commerce, an initiative to transform local stores into Digital Dukaans and accelerate the company's pledge to digitally transform one crore small businesses by 2025. According to reports, over 1.5 lakh neighborhood stores sell online through Amazon.in. Stores can use Smart Commerce to digitize their offline operations, improve the in-store shopping experience for walk-in customers, and create their own online storefronts to serve customers directly.

Stores of any size can use Amazon's logistics, digital payments, and other services in both their physical stores and their online storefront, or on Amazon.in. Smart Commerce will release its first set of solutions in the coming weeks to assist local stores in digitizing billing and inventory management, as well as providing a better in-store experience to their customers.

Following that, they will be able to create their own online storefront and serve their customers through voice and chat-based shopping experiences.

"We are humbled by how neighborhood stores from across India are taking advantage of our local shops on Amazon programme to go online and grow their business, with over 1.5 lakh stores already selling on Amazon.in within two years of launch," said Amit Agarwal, SVP, India and Emerging Markets at Amazon.

“We are excited to announce the launch of Smart Commerce, which will enable any store to truly become a digital dukaan, serving 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, but we remain committed to our goal of digitizing one million small businesses by 2025."

Amazon pledged to digitize 10 million MSMEs, generate $10 billion in cumulative exports from India, and create 2 million jobs in India by 2025 at the inaugural Smbhav Summit in January 2020. The company stated that it is on track to meet these commitments and even go above and beyond in some areas. In the same time frame, Amazon said it has increased its export pledge from $10 billion to $20 billion.

"Over the last two years, we have invested significantly toward the pledges we announced at the inaugural Smbhav Summit in 2020," said Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India.

“We are honoured to share that we have already digitized over 4 million small businesses and local stores, that we are on track to enable $5 billion in cumulative exports, and that we have created over 1.16 million direct and indirect jobs in India, including 1,35,000 new jobs in the last year."