Amazon assures smart stores will be a gamechanger for offline sellers

Amazon’s newly launched smart stores will turn out to be a huge game-changer for offline sellers across the country, said Girish Krishnan, Director, Amazon Pay Rewards in an interaction on Wednesday. 

In a Twitter Space discussion hosted by The Plunge Daily, Girish Krishnan, Director, Amazon Pay Rewards, said, “In the next five years, we will take smart stores pan-India and scale it across all the categories. We will also support the small businesses to be omnichannel. Any merchant who signs up for smart stores would feel encouraged about that experience.” 

On August 25, as part of this program, Amazon Pay announced the onboarding of 18,000 merchants across the cities and towns of India. Amazon Pay Smart Store is a unique offline shopping experience, which would improve in-store sales by offering affordability propositions across the widest array of payment options, aside from strengthening Amazon Pay’s endeavor to digitally empower offline SMBs, retailers and micro merchants in India. 

Krishnan said one of their main aims would be to focus on the communication between the retailers and their customers. “We want to give different aids to salespeople to help them communicate effectively to the customer. We want them to essentially be able to compare the products and help them in product selection,” he said.

Also a part of the discussion Lloyd Mathias, business strategist and angel investor, when asked Girish about how this will help the sellers in the upcoming years, he said: “Apart from bringing these sellers into the fold, we would also educate the retailers and support them to learn about these services. We will give a lot of tools in the hands of merchants that are more accessible to the customers near their stores,” he said. Moreover, he added, it will also give these retailers an option to offer rewards or coupons to customers in their vicinity – something that has the potential to also drive repeat visits to the store.

Launched in 2020, the Amazon Pay Smart Stores Program has been expanding in multiple cities across India, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Telangana, Girish Krishnan said. In the past year, the program has seen a 72 per cent increase in sign-ups from SMBs dealing in mobiles, electronics, laptops, large appliances, clothing, shoes, grocery, and kitchen.

“Our goal is to make our services best in class. There’s a ton of valuable services we can offer to the merchants and customers alike: insurance, warranty, being able to schedule deliveries easily through the applications” said Krishnan. “In short, any merchant across any category who signs up for smart stores should be able to offer customers a great in-store shopping experience and help them get maximum value in their store,” he added.

Once inside a smart store, customers can simply scan the store’s QR code using the Amazon app to explore the products available within the store. They can also choose to pay by their preferred method including UPI, Amazon Pay balance, Credit or Debit cards; along with flexible EMI options and a wide range of Bank offers. “Our payment experience has been the best in class and will continue to be the best in class,” said Krishnan.