Amazon India launches ‘Saathi’; a Peer-mentorship program for its sellers, by its sellers

 Amazon India launches ‘Saathi’; a Peer-mentorship program for its sellers, by its sellers

• Amazon to enable sellers to engage with other sellers as Saathis (mentors), share their experiences of online selling as well as best practices for new and prospective sellers to succeed on Amazon

• Amazon Saathis are seller volunteers who come from diversebusinesses and regions to mentor other sellers  on various topics like on ‘category insights’, ‘recommendations on Amazon tools’, ‘business advice’ – in the language of their choice   

December, 2020:Amazon India announced the launch of Amazon Saathi – a peer mentorship program designed for its sellers to exchange knowledge and share best practices.Amazon Saathi enables sellers on Amazon and SMBs across India to get access to a wealth of content presented by experienced sellers on the marketplace.  Established Amazon sellers can engage with over 7 lakh sellers toshare their learnings and experiences of operating an online business, and help the seller community to scale their businesses on Amazon. 

Pranav Bhasin, Director MSME & Seller Experience, Amazon India said, “We remain committed to enable every motivated seller to reach customers across India and the world, and our approach from Day 1 has been centered on what our sellers need. We are launching Amazon Saathi after a lot of research and feedback from sellers on having a platform for knowledge sharing and networking amongst them. Amazon Saathi brings over 7 lakh sellers on Amazon.intogether as a community, where new and existing sellers can lean on their peers for guidance, and share from their experiences to accelerate their business growth on Amazon.”

Over the last eight months, Amazon ran a pilot with over 50 active Saathi mentors who have interacted with over 41,000 aspiring and existing entrepreneurs across India, resulting in enthusiastic responses&feedback shared by their fellow peers. During the pilot, Amazon leveraged online events& hangouts, blogs articles and social media communities to bring insightful content in English and other Indian languages across various topics to help sellers learn the nuances of online selling accelerate their business. Amazontrained and coachedthe seller mentors on writing, speaking and presentation skills to help them mentor the seller community.

Commenting on the initiative, Amazon Saathi - Rohit Khanna, Sunshine Gifting added, “I am grateful to be associated with the Amazon Saathi program. Not only does it give me an opportunity to coach budding entrepreneurs, I also get to spend time refreshing my knowledge and learn from other Saathis. E-commerce is rapidly evolving. The Amazon Saathi program can prove to be an immense support for sellers to keep themselves ahead of the learning curve.”

As part of the launch, Amazon will host ‘Amazon Saathi: Meet & Greet 2020’ – a two-day virtual event on December 16 and 17, 2020.These sessions will be held in English on 16th December 2020and in Hindi on 17thDecember 2020to enable sellers to converse in their preferred language.The event will be inaugurated by Kunal Kapoor, co-founder, Ketto to share his learnings from the perspective of a fellow entrepreneur, in a fireside chat on the ‘Key takeaways for businesses in a post-COVID era’. The event will focus on a ‘speed-mentoring’ format which will enable SMBs to virtually interact with Amazon Saathi mentors over the 2 days.

With the launch of Amazon Saathi, Amazon takes another step towards enabling MSMEs across India to go digital by leveraging its successful community of 7 lakh sellers. Any seller who is interested in volunteering to mentor other sellers on Amazon can apply to become a Saathi on the Amazon Saathi website. The selected sellers can share their experience as a successful digital entrepreneur with other sellers.These Saathi sellers who volunteer to mentor their peers do not receive any financial incentive and are primarily focused on sharing knowledge for the benefit of the overall community.