If you want a break from sales offers of big brands this year-end and instead opt for unique products from smaller, desi sellers, hop on to Amazon. Yes, you read it corrrect! Whether it is a quirky stationery for gifting, a handy winter gadget or healthy eating, India’s innovative start-ups and emerging brands have offers for you on Amazon Launchpad.In fact, nearly 350 such brands have made their debuts by selling on Amazon this year and 48 have turned crorepatis through the platform.
Popular sectors catered to by these brands include health and personal care, beauty and grooming, grocery and home products. Amazon Launchpad addresses challenges associated with a start-up bringing up a new product, including marketing, sales and distribution problems.
“The number of crorepati brands and start-ups selling on the marketplace increased from 143 to 191 in the last one year. There has been 1.5 times increase in the number of such brands that joined the initiative. The marketplace has 80,00,000 unique products that are offered by more than 800 emerging brands and start-ups,” Amazon India told TMS.
India’s biggest online marketplace celebrated Small Business Day on December 14, which saw participation from thousands of manufacturers, small brand owners, start-ups, artisans and weavers, and encouraged shoppers to buy unique and innovative products from the platform. Amazon said it has also tied up with Confederation of Indian Industry to enable small and medium businesses to succeed with e-commerce, through awareness workshops and training.
“Today we have over 5.5 lakh sellers on our marketplace and a majority of these are small businesses spread across the length and breadth of India. These sellers offer genuine and unique Made-in-India products. With orders coming from over 99 per cent of India’s PIN codes last year, we are confident that this year too, customers will show their support for these businesses, helping us in our vision to transform their lives,” said Gopal Pillai, vice-president (seller services), Amazon India.
The inspiring stories of how some niche brands took off, gaining more visibility, doubling their revenue and inviting more funding are available on the Amazon platform or on the delivery boxes that have curated stories.For instance, consider the start-up Yoga Bar, founded by sisters Suhasini Sampath and Anindita Sampath in 2014, when they observed there was a vacuum in the energy snacks market in India. Today, online channels account for 40 per cent of their total sales.
“The Launchpad team has been synonymous with our growth story. We are the best sellers in almost all the categories we launched in, due to their constant support and guidance,” the sisters said.
“I don’t think any other platform has the scope to target and build a brand the way Amazon does. We reached 3,00,000 parents across 150+ cities, and Amazon Launchpad has been an integral part of our journey,” said Varun Alagh, founder and CEO of Mamaearth, which made quite a name in the mother and baby personal care market.