Amazon India commits to digitizing local businesses in UP, opens its first Digital Kendra in Kanpur

Amazon India announced several initiatives to enable local businesses in the state of Uttar Pradesh to digitise their business and sell globally.

The announcement was made at the Loan Mela event in Lucknow where the Indian subsidiary of the e-commerce giant signed two Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and Export Promotion, Government of Uttar Pradesh.

According to the MoUs, Amazon will train and onboard UP-based MSMEs on its Global Selling programme, which is its e-commerce exports programme to enable small businesses in India to sell online across 200 countries.

The company’s statement said that the focus will be on bringing artisans, weavers and MSME sellers, registered under the government’s One District One Product (ODOP) programme to list their unique Indian products on Amazon.in platform and access international markets.

The company also opened its first Digital Kendra in UP in Barra 2 area of Kanpur in the presence of the UP’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Digital Kendra is its brick-and-mortar upskilling centre for MSMEs that equips them with the tools and techniques to start their online journey. The physical centre provides a range of third-party services such as shipping and logistics support, cataloguing assistance, digital marketing services, GST and taxation and other support required for being digital entrepreneurs.

“Our state departments will work closely with Amazon for the benefit of lakhs of entrepreneurs across Uttar Pradesh. I believe that initiatives like these can help them grow their business and also contribute to growing our state’s economy to $1 trillion by 2027,” Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh, said at the Loan Mela event.

Currently, Amazon India claims to have digitised over four million small businesses and enabled $5 billion in cumulative exports from India. Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India said, “These initiatives reflect our commitment to digitise 10 million small businesses, including local stores, and enable $20 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025.”