Amazon Looks To Cash In On Personal Hygiene, Healthcare Products

Keeping with the global trend, Amazon India is now working with local sellers to cash in on the growing demand for personal hygiene and healthcare products. These products include face shields, digital thermometers, mobile phone sanitisers, personal protective equipment (PPE), disposable gloves and do-it-yourself smart sanitiser dispensers. 

For this, Amazon is leveraging on its seller-focussed Accelerator programme, under which the company provides details of shopping trends, top-selling products and other digital marketing strategies to sellers listed on the programme.

The Times of India, which claimed to have reviewed the list adds that the list also contains several details, including tweaking prices for Indian market. 

According to a market research firm Capgemini Research, convenience, health and safety and products/services which give a sense of purpose will see greater interest among customers. Amazon’s Accelerator merchant’s decision to locally manufacture the products would give customers a purpose to boost the Indian economy. 

Vocal For Local Brings A Sense Of Purpose To Customers

As the government is slowly opening up the economy, these products are expected to have a larger demand as people resume their daily operations. Amazon started these discussions last week and merchants are looking to produce these products locally, instead of relying on China. 

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on May 12, urged people to buy and endorse local products to help the Indian economy and manufacturers. The government believes that this boost will help the country sustain during the nationwide-lockdown and the economic slowdown.

“Time has taught us that we must make ‘local’ the mantra of our lives. Global brands which are there today were once local too but when people there started supporting them they became global. That is why from today, every Indian must become vocal for our local,” Modi had said.

With this, several companies and Indian startups have also incorporated this as their mantra. 

For instance, electric two-wheeler manufacturer Okinawa is looking to launch its first electric bike Oki100 in the third quarter of FY20-21, which will be 100% localised. 

Meanwhile, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali and Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Art of Living (AOL) have also decided to promote ‘vocal for local’ by launching their own ecommerce and social media platform, respectively. Ramdev’s ecommerce platform, OrderMe, will sell its locally produced fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) line, and also connect consumers to neighbourhood stores selling the products. 

Whereas, Ravishankar’s Elyments is said to combine “all the elements of the existing social media platforms and will include shopping and payment facilities too.”  It will also get video conferencing and will have its servers in India. “Your data is safe with us. Nobody can hack our social media platform,” the spiritual leader claimed.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) are also launching their own ecommerce and food delivery service, respectively, in order to take on the giants in their domains and promote local traders and restaurateurs.