Jeff Bezos, founder of ecommerce leader Amazon recently wrote a letter to its shareholders. In the letter he touched on various aspects of the business including high-points, failures, opportunities and long term goals.
He also wrote about Amazon’s operations in India, particularly seller initiatives Chai Cart and Tatkal.
Globalizing marketplace offering
Addressing the etailer’s marketplace arm, Bezos pulled out India as an example of how the company has globalized marketplace. He went in detail about their Chai Cart program where Amazon executives reached out to small sellers who are interested in selling online but don’t have the essential tools and information.
He stated,
“Last year we ran a program called Amazon Chai Cart where we deployed three-wheeled mobile carts to navigate in a city’s business districts, serve tea, water and lemon juice to small business owners and teach them about selling online. In a period of four months, the team traveled 15,280 km across 31 cities, served 37,200 cups of tea and engaged with over 10,000 sellers.”
Amazon Tatkal in focus
The ‘Chai Cart’ program which was launched last year inspired the ecommerce biggie to start Amazon Tatkal. The instant selling service offered merchants registration, cataloguing, listing & photography service at their doorstep.
“Through this program (Chai Cart) and other conversations with sellers, we found out there was a lot of interest in selling online, but that sellers struggled with the belief that the process was time-consuming, tedious and complex. So, we invented Amazon Tatkal, which enables small businesses to get online in less than 60 minutes,” Bezos wrote.
Bezos also briefly mentioned Fulfilment by Amazon, Amazon Lending and Seller Flex services.
The success of these initiatives in India may motivate the company to apply these strategies in other parts of the world. The idea is to create opportunities for all sellers, big or small to reach buyers across the globe.
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