Amazon is extending its reach beyond the e-commerce space it has been operating in for the last twenty years to keep a grip on the growing competition. The operations of the American behemoth in the country are prominent and have recently received a hefty $300Mn funding from its parent company. Thus, it is launching another new service enabling users to sell used products on its platform in India.
Simply termed as Sell as Individual, this new peer-to-peer (P2P) service has initially been made available to users in the city of Bengaluru. It will enable an Amazon user to post an ad for any product, including used products and find a buyer for the same. You can post multiple ads for products you want to sell on the platform, but not in a bundled format.
Once you’re matched with a prospective buyer and the sale goes through, the company is following a ‘pick-pack-and-pay’ programme. This means the sold goods will be picked up from your doorstep, packed and delivered to the buyer. And then the required payment amount will be remitted to you (either through Amazon Pay or bank account).
Talking about the launch of the used goods marketplace, an Amazon spokesperson says,
Amazon has now launched an end-to-end experience for customers in Bengaluru to sell their used products. Amazon has specifically customised it for customers in India (individuals) with features like easy-to-list form, doorstep pickup, packing and delivery to customers, a price-recommender for guiding individual sellers on how to price their used items and a localised discovery experience on Amazon for buyers to help sellers get a quick sale.
For those unaware, this isn’t the first time that the e-commerce behemoth is trying a hand at selling used goods. Earlier in 2015, Amazon had launched Junglee to handle this aspect of the platform and is now expanding on the same under its own name. This has been reiterated with the fact that the registration page and the FAQ page redirect you to Junglee’s website.
The current model being used by Amazon for individual sellers will allow them to retail their unpacked, refurbished or used products on the marketplace. It includes product categories such as phones, tablets and laptops, books, watches, movies, video games and music CDs. You’ll also be able to sell or purchase products, such as DIY projects, fashion jewellery from homepreneurs.
In order to attract customers, the company is currently offering incentives to those who enroll for the reseller programme. It’s now offering a cashback to users in their Amazon Pay wallet on the sale of a particular set of goods. If the user sells five used books, or movies, or music or video games, Amazon will offer Rs 1,000 as Amazon Pay Balance. You can secure even more cashback of you manage to sell a used mobile, or tablet or laptop worth Rs 5,000 and above. This offer is only valid until 15th January 2017.
Though this is a value addition for the American e-commerce behemoth’s operations in India but it spells trouble for other used goods sites currently operating in the country. In a market where OLX and Quikr have been pouring money to acquire startups and expand its services to cover more ground, Amazon is now looking to obliterate them. This could be a huge opportunity for Amazon as it looks to secure the pole position in India’s competitive e-commerce ecosystem.
