E-commerce giant Amazon has invested Rs 375 crore into Amazon Transportation Services, its Indian logistics arm, to enable it to have the logistics capacity to continue to onboard more local sellers.
The investment was made to Amazon Transportation Services on June 16, according to filings sourced by ET Tech from business intelligence platform Tofler. The funding injection came from Amazon’s businesses Amazon Corporate Holding Private Limited, which is based in Singapore, and Amazon.com.incs Limited, which is based in Mauritius.
The new investment will enable Amazon to bolster its logistics as it aims to onboard several million more local sellers in India, Amazon India’s country manager Manish Tiwary told the Economic Times. This is part of Amazon India’s wider plan to onboard 500 million more customers by offering them a wide array of products from local sellers and micro, small, and medium enterprises.
At present, Amazon India counts around 1.1 million sellers on its platform and approximately 100 million users. In order to penetrate more rural markets and support small businesses, Amazon India is focusing on digitising small, independent stores. The business launched a ‘Smart Commerce’ initiative in May which is designed to enable small brick-and-mortar stores to set up and run online storefronts in addition to their products listed on Amazon’s marketplace. Amazon is also planning to increase the amount of Indian-made products on its international stores.
