Amazon India Gears Up For Festival Season With Furniture

Preparing for the festival season, Amazon India has enhanced the range of its furniture department and played to its strength in the segment. The eCommerce retailer has reportedly seen its furniture business increase in the country by more than 120 percent during the last year, The Economic Times reported.

More than 65 percent of its sales originate from shoppers outside the metros in cities like Raipur, Vellore, Nasik, Udupi, Kollam, Kota and Palakkad. And beyond popular brands such as UrbanLadder, Sleepwell and Interio, the retailer has included new brands from entrepreneurs such as Sleepycat, Deckup and Wakefit.

At the same time, the online marketplace provides a nationwide customer base for small- and medium-sized companies in the artisan hubs of Rajasthan.

The retailer has not yet announced the dates of its festival sales, but ET reported it will probably begin at the end of September. Flipkart, Amazon’s largest competitor in the country, announced it will kick off its flagship “The Big Billion Days” event on Sept. 29.

Amazon India Director of Large Appliances and Furniture Suchit Subhas said, per the report, “Customers typically look to upgrade their homes in the festival season. We have added more than 60,000 products this year to offer the largest selection of furniture.” Typically, eCommerce firms begin to get ready for festival sales months ahead of time.

In separate news, a report surfaced in August that Amazon India was rolling out an online marketplace to connect vendors on its platform to B2B services. Amazon’s Marketplace Appstore is now live in the country, enabling sellers to access third-party applications to promote their business management, automation and growth goals.

Businesses can access services developed by Amazon in addition to other third-party service providers through 13 categories, including inventory management, accounting and tax remittance and eCommerce solution services, among others. Businesses can tap into the app marketplace via the Amazon Seller Central dashboard.