E-commerce major Amazon on Sunday said sellers will be able to register on the Amazon.in marketplace and manage their online business in Kannada, a move aimed at enhancing the sellers' experience on the platform.
The development will benefit over 35,000 existing Amazon sellers and lakhs of new sellers from markets including Bengaluru, Mangalore, Hubballi, Kalaburgi and Mysuru among many cities in Karnataka.
This is a major step towards breaking the language barrier for lakhs of Indian entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), local shops and retailers from Karnataka to help them benefit from e-commerce, a statement said.
The launch in Kannada is followed by the recently launched seller registrations and account management services in Hindi and Tamil, which saw over 50,000 new Amazon sellers sign up on the Amazon.in marketplace in a language of their convenience.
Right from registering as an Amazon seller for the first time, to managing orders, inventory management and accessing performance metrics – sellers will now be able to conduct these operations in Kannada as well, the statement said.
This experience has been made available on the Amazon seller website as well as on the mobile app. Amazon also provides Seller Support Services and Seller University videos and tutorials in Kannada.
Amazon has over seven lakh sellers on its platform.
To launch the services in Kannada for sellers, Amazon India said it has worked with expert linguists to develop an accurate and comprehensible experience.
The team has chosen commonly used terms over perfectly translated words to make the experience authentic, easily understandable and seamless for sellers, Amazon said.
"Ease of doing business is a key priority for the government, and our focus is on helping businesses adopt technology to be successful in markets. Technology and e-commerce will play a crucial role in boosting the growth of millions of small and medium businesses in domestic as well as international markets, in the coming days," Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said.
By introducing self-registration for sellers in Kannada, Amazon is taking yet another step towards enabling micro, small and medium enterprises leverage e-commerce to grow their business, Narayan added.
"The ability to conduct their business in Kannada will greatly benefit the SMBs and MSMEs in Karnataka, eliminate language barriers, and help them succeed," Narayan said.
Pranav Bhasin, Director of MSME and Seller Experience at Amazon India, said the company's vision is to enable every motivated seller anywhere in the country to reach customers in India and every country in the world.
"Language is a prominent barrier that Indian MSMEs face when they seek to leverage e-commerce to expand their business. As we move to enable more MSMEs to embrace e-commerce, we remain committed to strengthening our vernacular, voice and video powered initiatives," he said.
In December, Amazon India had said 1.5 lakh new sellers had joined its platform in 2020 and that over 70,000 Indian exporters in its global selling programme have crossed USD 2 billion in cumulative exports.
Also, more than 10 lakh small and mid-size business (SMBs) including sellers, delivery and logistics partners, neighbourhood stores, enterprises, developers, content creators and authors work with the company in the country.