1 lakh Indian traders sell products online: Amazon JV

Bengaluru: Amazon-Catamaran joint venture Prione Business Services Ltd on Thursday said it has enabled one lakh small and medium businesses (SMBs) to sell a variety of products online in 100 cities across India and leverage digital payments for growth.

The global e-tailer had set up Prione in 2014 with Catamaran, promoted by Infosys Founder NRNarayana Murthy, to encourage Indian SMBs to sell their products online from the unorganized offline market to the organised digital platform.

"We have helped about 100,000 SMBs across the country to sell online apparels, electronics, home and kitchen appliances among 20 product categories and benefit from digital payments," said the city-based JV in a statement here.

The Indian digital payments industry is estimated to touch $500 billion by 2020, with SMBs in tier-1 and tier-2 cities making major contribution. "The Indian e-commerce market is projected to reach $84 billion by 2021. About 50 million SMBs across the country will be a key driver of its growth," said Prione Chief Executive Sandeep Varaganti in the statement.

With domain experts in 25 cities and a franchise network in 30 cities, Prione helps SMBs start online business without heavy investment required in traditional retail. "We organise sessions with SMBs across the country to help them manage and grow their business online by identifying the right products, manage inventory, improve delivery and offer the best price to customers," said the statement. With benefits like cashbacks and offers on products, the SMBs are able to tap into a larger customer base and ensure customer retention.

"The swift transactions come with a 24/7 merchant and customer support, to answer queries through email and phone, ensuring seamless functioning of businesses," added the statement."Prione's cataloguing service helped us to hard-sell our products, as the visual catalogue enabled our customers choose the right product and reduced the returns drastically," said Mohammed Irfan of Friske Knits, an apparel maker at Tirupur in Tamil Nadu.The descriptive details on the catalogue enabled Friske Knits to increase turnover to Rs 60 lakh from Rs 15 lakh per month.