SBI Inks Partnership With Amazon For Developing Payment & Commerce Solutions

As the ecommerce market in India excels growth, the other horizontal and vertical players do not want to miss the chance of basking in its glory. Estimating that the exponential rise of ecommerce industry is supposed to touch $22 Bn by 2015 end, many business strategies have been averted. This time it is Indian multinational Public Sector banking and financial services company, State Bank of India, who has partnered with the ecommerce behemoth, Amazon.

Under the signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) between SBI and Amazon, the partnership will facilitate frictionless payments and commerce solutions for customers and small businesses.

SBI said that the small and medium enterprises or SMEs are unable to payback their loans in the given tenure which is due to the economic downturn. With this strategic partnership SBI can help mobilize business for its SME clients. The businesses under SBI loans will obtain ready sale orders placed on ecommerce portals, along with sourcing raw materials at discounted rates.

Commenting on the development Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, SBI said, “Our partnership with ecommerce platforms like Amazon would give a fillip to ecommerce in India and brings lots of value to our retail and SME customers. We are working on ways to enrich customers’ payment experience and opening up the windows of e-commerce to our SME customers.”

Sunil Srivastava who is the Deputy Managing Director (Corporate Strategy & New Businesses) of SBI is of the belief that facilitating SMEs to do their business will also help secure their loan repayments. The bank sees it as a multi-billion opportunity to secure  its own asset quality.

Apart from Amazon, SBI plans to ink  similar agreements with homegrown players like Snapdeal and Paypal.