ET: How is Amazon India serving to MSMEs stand out on a platform with an enormous variety of sellers? How is it serving to them enhance their product visibility to clients?
Gaurav Bhatnagar (GB): Amazon India is deeply dedicated to serving to MSMEs not solely take part in e-commerce but additionally stand out in a market with thousands and thousands of sellers. Programmes like Amazon Saheli have been launched to assist women-led companies and self-help teams (SHGs) by way of devoted onboarding assist and a branded storefront, enabling larger visibility and belief. Complementing that is the Amazon Karigar programme, which digitises India’s wealthy artisan and craft heritage by offering conventional weavers and artisans entry to a nationwide buyer base, serving to them scale past native markets. To assist start-ups and rising D2C manufacturers, Amazon runs Launchpad, a programme designed to present these companies higher entry to advertising and marketing instruments, visibility, and distribution. In the meantime, Native Outlets on Amazon allows neighbourhood retailers to go surfing and attain new clients whereas nonetheless retaining the belief of their offline presence.Alongside these focused initiatives, Amazon has additionally launched a number of broader reforms, corresponding to India’s largest vendor charge discount in April 2025, together with zero referral charges on merchandise below Rs 300 serving to lakhs of small companies enhance their margins and improve competitiveness within the digital financial system.
Past programmes and charge revisions, Amazon is leveraging applied sciences like synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML) to additional allow sellers, from catalogue enhancement and product demand forecasting to stock planning. To extend discoverability, sellers can profit from excessive product high quality and powerful buyer critiques, which assist organically enhance visibility. For sellers seeking to scale operations, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) and Multi-Channel Fulfilment (MCF) enable them to retailer stock in Amazon’s warehouses, the place Amazon handles packaging, supply, and customer support, guaranteeing Prime-like experiences even for small companies. These choices cut back operational load whereas enhancing buyer expertise and conversion charges. Whether or not it’s by way of tailor-made packages, diminished prices, superior instruments, or logistics assist, Amazon is targeted on guaranteeing that MSMEs not solely have a voice but additionally a transparent edge within the digital market.
ET: Previously couple of years, Amazon India launched a number of AI assistant instruments. How have these instruments remodeled e-commerce for MSMEs?
GB: Amazon India’s AI assistant instruments have remodeled the best way MSMEs function and develop within the e-commerce ecosystem by simplifying complicated processes and enhancing decision-making. These instruments use AI and ML to assist sellers throughout key features, proper from catalogue creation to demand forecasting and stock administration. For a lot of MSMEs that will lack formal digital infrastructure or advertising and marketing experience, these AI instruments act as intuitive guides, serving to them optimise product listings with the fitting titles, key phrases, and pictures, thereby enhancing discoverability. On the backend, predictive analytics assist sellers anticipate buyer demand, handle inventory ranges effectively, and cut back the danger of overstocking or stockouts.
Furthermore, AI-driven insights supply sellers real-time information on buyer preferences, seasonal tendencies, and pricing methods, enabling them to make knowledgeable enterprise choices with minimal guesswork. For instance, an artisan below the Amazon Karigar programme or a neighborhood store proprietor from a tier II city utilizing FBA (Success by Amazon) can now compete extra successfully as a result of the platform supplies them with the identical sensible instruments that enormous manufacturers use.
ET: What measures has Amazon taken to assist sellers in reaching tier III and IV cities?
GB: To make sure sellers can successfully attain clients in tier III and IV cities, Amazon India has made strategic operational and technological investments throughout the nation. On the infrastructure stage, Amazon has partnered with India Publish, enabling supply protection to each single PIN code within the nation, together with probably the most distant areas. In parallel, Amazon has established a sturdy logistics spine with fulfilment centres, sortation hubs, and supply stations throughout smaller cities, guaranteeing quick and dependable order fulfilment no matter geography.
To additional enhance accessibility, Amazon launched procuring experiences in seven Indian languages—Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali—making it simpler for purchasers in smaller cities to browse and store of their most popular language. On the vendor’s facet, Amazon additionally presents a promoting interface in seven Indian languages—Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam, and Telugu—permitting native entrepreneurs to register and handle their companies extra comfortably. This dual-language method reduces the digital divide and opens up e-commerce alternatives for sellers and patrons alike. Collectively, these initiatives be certain that MSMEs from throughout India can entry and serve demand from tier III and IV cities with larger ease, attain, and effectivity.
ET: MSMEs usually encounter monetary limitations, leading to a substantial credit score hole on this sector. How is Amazon India serving to sellers on this matter?
GB: We launched Amazon Lending, a focused initiative that gives accessible working capital to eligible sellers primarily based on their efficiency metrics, with out requiring collateral. By way of this programme, sellers obtain loans or traces of credit score starting from roughly Rs 50,000 as much as a number of lakhs of rupees. The approval course of is streamlined and quick, usually accomplished inside a day or two, and mortgage quantities are decided utilizing vendor gross sales information and account well being, not conventional credit score scores. Sellers typically begin repaying after round 90 days, giving them time to speculate borrowed capital in stock, advertising and marketing, or enterprise growth.
Amazon has additionally partnered with digital lenders, corresponding to Lendingkart, and lending service suppliers, together with FlexiLoans, SellersFi, and others, to succeed in over 400,000 MSME sellers, particularly in tier II and III areas, providing versatile compensation choices tailor-made to gross sales cycles. This collaborative method ensures that even small and rural sellers, usually excluded from conventional lending, can entry well timed, inexpensive capital. By aligning credit score with enterprise efficiency and regional wants, Amazon is enabling MSMEs throughout India to spend money on progress, keep resilient, and thrive within the digital financial system.
ET: In what methods do Amazon India’s providers and steerage evolve alongside the expansion of MSME sellers, particularly when it comes to their dimension, scale, gross sales, product choices, and stock capability?
GB: As MSME sellers develop in scale, Amazon steps in with devoted account administration providers by way of its Amazon Enterprise Advisory (ABA) programme. As soon as eligible, sellers acquire entry to a devoted account supervisor who collaborates on strategic progress plans and data-driven insights, offering weekly efficiency critiques, steerage on increasing choice, precedence assist, sooner fund disbursements, and tailor-made deal participation. This personalised method helps companies systematically scale their operations and listings.
Concurrently, sellers can reap the benefits of tiered fulfilment options like FBA and Vendor Flex. As gross sales and stock volumes enhance, FBA permits retailers to retailer extra merchandise in Amazon’s warehouses, with Amazon managing packing, transport, and buyer assist, liberating sellers to deal with increasing provide and product vary. Amazon’s instruments additionally scale with vendor progress. Established sellers acquire entry to superior automation and analytics, together with system integrations by way of API for seamless stock administration, auto suggestions requests, and real-time gross sales and profitability dashboards. As their companies mature, sellers can unlock options for bulk B2B promoting, model storefronts by way of Model Registry, customised A+ content material, and even worldwide growth by way of Amazon International Promoting.
Moreover, for financing must scale, Amazon Lending presents bigger or repeat loans, whereas ABA members get precedence entry to credit score and extra liberal lending phrases. This ensures sellers can ramp up stock, launch new merchandise, and navigate peak-demand seasons with ease.
ET: How does Amazon plan to assist the following 10 million MSMEs in India?
GB: Amazon India’s method to supporting the following 10 million MSMEs is grounded in a transparent technique centered on accessibility, innovation, and scale. We recognise that the following wave of sellers will largely come from non-metro areas, rising D2C manufacturers, and conventional sectors seeking to modernise. To deal with this shift, Amazon is investing in simplifying vendor onboarding and lowering obstacles by way of vernacular language assist, mobile-first registration, and assisted onboarding mechanisms designed for first-time digital customers.
On the expertise entrance, Amazon is evolving from being a market to a full-stack enabler. This contains newer improvements like built-in logistics tech, automated pricing instruments, and seller-focused insights engines that provide actionable information to refine listings, optimise stock, and establish high-growth product segments.
