Amazon India launches 'STEP' to accelerate growth of 7 lakh sellers

Amazon India on Monday launched 'STEP', a performance-based benefits programme to help the seven lakh sellers on its platform accelerate their growth.

With the launch of STEP, Amazon is introducing its revised fee structure that was earlier deferred to after Diwali. STEP simplifies the seller experience by providing customised and actionable recommendations which help sellers improve key customer experience metrics and in turn their growth, a statement said.

By improving performance, sellers can unlock benefits across multiple levels like ‘Basic’, ‘Standard’, ‘Advanced’, ‘Premium’ and more.

These benefits include fee waivers, faster disbursement cycles, priority seller support and world-class free account management, the statement added.

"Using customised and actionable recommendations, STEP enables sellers to improve key seller controllable metrics like cancellation rate, late dispatch rate, return rate, among others. Based on their performance, sellers can access benefits like online and offline training, fee waivers, faster disbursement cycles, and free account management," it said.

Starting December 1, 2020, all sellers on Amazon.in will get 'Standard' benefits up to March 31, 2021, and effective April 1, 2021 will be eligible for ‘Basic’, ‘Advanced’, ‘Premium’ and others based on their performance from January 1 to March 31, 2021.

All sellers will get an opportunity to upgrade their level and corresponding benefits based on their performance every quarter, it added.

"STEP empowers sellers of all sizes and tenure to drive their growth on Amazon.in by focusing on their performance on key metrics which matter to customers. STEP provides objective and transparent criteria along with benefits designed to help sellers improve their performance on these metrics in a predictable manner," Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said.

He added that the company has carefully crafted each element of the programme to ensure its sellers can provide a great customer experience and in turn, grow and be successful on Amazon.in.

The revised fees on Amazon - effective December 1, 2020 - are linked to STEP levels and include waiver on weight handling fees and lightning deal fees as part of STEP benefits, the statement said.

In addition, there will be reduction in closing fee charges for products in low price range (Rs 250-500) and zero disposal fees for items shipped from Amazon fulfilment centres, it added.

"Amazon.in has taken several initiatives this year to help its seller community of more than seven lakh sellers overcome obstacles and get their businesses back on track," the company said.

These include free Covid-19 health insurance (offered by Acko in partnership with Amazon), on demand payment disbursement, relaxation in performance metrics, fee waivers on inventory storage fees and 50 per cent waiver on ‘Sell on

Amazon’ fees for small sellers, and deferring its marketplace fee revisions to December 2020, it added.