India -  Amazon.in announced its biggest celebration of Small & Medium Businesses by organizing Small Business Day on December 14, 2019. The 2nd edition of Amazon Small Business Day will start from midnight on December 14, 2019 until 11:59 pm on the same day. The specially curated online event will offer customers the opportunity to discover and purchase unique and hard-to-find products from start-ups, women entrepreneurs, artisans and weavers under its various programs such as Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Saheli, Amazon Karigar as well as enjoy other deals and offers extended by lakhs of SMBs and MSMEs . This year for every order received, Amazon will contribute Rs.1 to a partner NGO for training and upskilling of MSMEs.

Customers will be able to discover and purchase crores of unique, hard-to-find , innovative made in India products across hundreds of categories including furniture products from Churu, rare and genuine handicrafts like Rogan Artwork, Lippan work from Bhuj, products made by tribal communities across India, health and nutrition products, organic products, genuine handicrafts

“We are very proud to host the 2nd edition of the Amazon Small Business Day. Today we have over 5.5 lakh sellers selling on our marketplace and a majority of these are small businesses spread across the length and breadth of India. These sellers offer high-quality, genuine and unique made in India products to customers. This event is our effort to encourage more and more customers to participate in the event and contribute to their growth and success. With orders coming from over 99% of India’s pin codes last year, we are confident that this year too customers will shop enthusiastically and show their support for these businesses and in turn help us in our vision to transform their lives,” said Gopal Pillai, Vice President Seller Services, Amazon India

In the 1st ever edition of Amazon Small Business Day organized in December of 2018, the event witnessed a sales spike of 1.4X over BAU their average sales with orders coming from over 99% of India pin-codes. Furthermore, close to 2000 sellers saw a spike of more than 4X and over 4100 sellers saw a spike of over 2X over average business day during Amazon Small Business Day.

“We are happy to partner with Amazon Karigar, which showcases the unique and exemplary work of tribal artisans across India. We participated in the Small Businesses Day 2018 and saw 1500% increase in sales of tribal handicrafts. With Amazon’s experience and deep understanding of consumers, and TRIFED’s enablement of tribal selection, we are confident that through this partnership, together we will be able to make a difference in the lives of the tribal community across the country,” said Pravir Krishna, IAS, Managing Director, TRIFED, Govt. of India.

Amazon India announced the 2nd edition of the Small Business Day today at an event in New Delhi which was hosted in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In line with its vision to transform the way India buys & sells, Amazon India has partnered with CII to facilitate micro, small and medium enterprises to develop their business further by listing and selling their products and services online.

Commenting on the partnership, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said, "E-commerce has played a significant role by lowering entrance costs and barriers to help MSMEs engage in international trade and Global Value Chains (GVC). The inclusiveness of GVC could be greatly enhanced by expanding and extending the benefits of E-commerce platforms to Indian MSMEs. It is also important that key stakeholders work together in creating awareness about the opportunities that E-commerce offers to the Indian MSMEs. To work towards this integration, CII and Amazon today agreed on a partnership to conduct various initiatives to drive success of MSMEs through E-commerce. CII and Amazon agreed to start with a series of workshops in 5 cities in identified MSME clusters of leather & footwear, apparels & textiles, automobile, cycle parts and handicrafts. The workshops will aim at raising awareness about E-commerce, and focus on how MSMEs can leverage E-commerce for their success, particularly for B2C exports.”

As part of this collaboration, Amazon and CII will conduct various activities including a series of awareness workshops, road shows, and e-commerce training among other initiatives. These workshops will be held across India, focused on domestic MSMEs and potential exporters with a view to sensitizing these MSMEs on the potential of enhancing market access by leveraging Amazon's global marketplace.