B2B pilot a huge success: Amazon

Claims 1,000s of customers in B'luru

AmazonBusiness.in, a members-only B2B eCommerce website which intends to disrupt the wholesale market sector in India, has forecast ambitious growth as it says its pilot in Bengaluru has drawn huge success.

Interacting with Deccan Herald, AmazonBusiness.in General Manager Kaveesh Chawla said the company’s customer- centric backward integration approach has provided rich dividends in making it as a platform for India’s growing B2B segment.

“We launched our service on April 21. Already we have added thousands of customers from Bengaluru during our pilot stage initiative and we have received more than a thousand queries from outside Bengaluru,” Chawla said.

Elaborating on the division’s strategy, he said AmazonBusiness.in is growing in line with the group’s vision to be India’s most customer-centric company. “Our goal is to build a platform which customers love. We want to be a product or solution which give customers the largest selection under one roof, unique experience with consistency, ability to track delivery to their doorstep, etc. We want to give our customers what they need without locking in their working capital,” he said.

He said 46 million  small and medium businesses suffer because of inefficiencies in supplies, procurement, pricing, delivery, and vendor lead timing. “Very large companies can only overcome these difficulties. We will address these problems and give better services to our B2B customers,” he said.

Has its own warehouse

While it is availing the logistics service of parent Amazon India for supplying in Bengaluru, AmazonBusiness.in has its own warehouse at Bommasandra.

“It is a B2B warehouse. It is not a high-tech warehouse with robots. It is really a pilot location. Once we get better data, we will take a call on how to optimise the warehouse and other logistics service,” he said.

Chawla said on the payment side, the service is availing facilities like National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). “Those are popular for large transactions via bank to bank and very low cost. We also use credit and debit cards and cash-on-delivery model. We are also exploring immediate payment service (IMPS), an instant interbank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones, soon,” he said.

He said the company is receiving good response in the market as people have already purchased online. “They are very happy with our service. When they come to know about the new service they are excited. I have received queries from Hubbali, Dharwad, and Mangaluru also,” he said. 

When asked about tackling the diversity of the Indian market, he said the bilingual customer service team assists B2B customers to expand their business horizon.

To mine B2B customers, he said acquisition is happening via different channels.  “We have a feet-on-street team to meet clients. We also go for digital marketing channel via online ads and emails. We continue to experiment as we find potential in our partners who have access to these customers. Financial companies are also touch-basing B2B customers. We are talking with them also,” he said. 

Chawla said the company started off with office products and stationery. “We have also cleaning and housekeeping supplies for hotels, hospitals, health and personal care, and food and beverages. We are adding medical category by the end of this year,” he said.


Business Impact

AmazonBusiness.in has already added 1,000s ofcustomers from Bengaluru during its pilot stage initiative

To tackle diversity of market, the company has bilingual customer service team assist B2B
customers

For payments, the service uses NEFT, RTGS, debit cards, credit cards, and cash-on-delivery. It is also exploring IMPS