Amazon India Plots Private Label Expansion With Accelerator Programme

Amazon is all set to bring its seller-focussed Accelerator programme to India and take a more hands-on approach to private label expansion. As part of the programme, the company will provide partner sellers details of shopping trends, the top-selling products and other digital marketing strategies.

Amazon Accelerator will give sellers data about products and combinations of colour, sizes and other aspects that are being sold the most, so that sellers can shape their products accordingly. Amazon will be charging a programme fee, which will be somewhere close to 7% of the gross sales on the products made by the seller each month, according to a report published in ET.

The company has already started reaching out to manufacturers and sellers from its platform to be a part of the Amazon Accelerator programme. The report adds that according to the terms, Amazon will also have the option to acquire these small and medium enterprises (SME) at mutually pre-decided rates.

Products under Amazon Accelerator will be a part of “Made for Amazon” private label umbrella. Amazon is likely to promote these brands through coupons, sales, marketing strategies and onboarding support including increasing visibility, providing detailed input on selections, deep-diving on categories and inventory management guidance.

Under its pilot for the India market, Amazon Accelerator chose to experiment with MyBlush, a clothing brand for plus-sized women.

Amazon Accelerator programme was launched in 2018. Since launch, it has got numerous brands on board (globally), these include RAVENNA Home, Spotted Zebra, Mama Bear, Presto and Mae. The company also has its own private labels AmazonBasics, Amazon Fresh, Wickedly Prime, Solimo, Amazon Essentials an Amazon Elements, among others.

In India, the company is currently under government’s scrutiny because of the problems brick-and-mortar store traders have been facing due to deep discounting and other predatory practices, which created an unlevel playing field between them.

On November 11, the consumer affairs ministry introduced a new draft policy named Consumer Protection (e-Commerce) Rules 2019 to prevent fraud, unfair trade practices and protect the rights and interests of consumers.

Digital traders body the All Indian Online Vendors Association (Aiova) told ET that the programme will “destroy” the neutrality of the ecommerce, as smaller vendors will be forced to take part in such programmes, just to survive.