Amazon’s new move to boost customer connect: Publishes success of small business sellers on boxes

In a first-of-its-kind move by an e-commerce company, Amazon optimising its delivery boxes to increase customer engagement has announced Storyboxes — a packaging initiative where Amazon shares the growth journey of its sellers on the boxes. The company started the initiative during its annual Great Indian Festival sale (September 29 – October 4) to print the stories of its six sellers as of now. The company is looking to increase the number of such sellers’ stories ahead. Amazon has over 5 lakh sellers including small businesses, artisans, women entrepreneurs, and emerging brands on its marketplace.

With Storyboxes, Amazon intends to “help customers get a glimpse of how they are an integral part of the transformation journeys of lakhs of sellers on Amazon.in,” said Gopal Pillai, VP, Seller Services, Amazon India in a statement. The company claimed its festive sale to be its biggest event ever with more than 65k sellers from over 500 cities getting orders in just five days along with around 3X increase in unit sales from non-metro customers.

Moreover, sellers, particularly from small cities, have emerged as the key driver for this year sales for Amazon’s arch-rival Flipkart as well. While Amazon saw 88 per cent new customers coming from small towns along with 209 Karigar sellers and 250 Launchpad sellers received orders during its annual sale, For Flipkart, over 50 per cent of its Plus shoppers came from tier-II cities and beyond while in terms of sellers, over 40 per cent transacting sellers were from tier-II and beyond cities.

The StoryBoxes, claimed Amazon, is also a first-of-its-kind feature wherein customers can scan the seller face on the box that will be routed to a microsite featuring more seller stories. The six sellers featured on the boxes are Rani Ravindran (sells wooden toys and cotton pillows), Biswajit Swain (handicrafts), Vijaya Rajan (snacks), Ibanshara Shullai (agri produce), Abdul Gafoor Khatri (art painting), and Ashwin Soke (beauty products).

Amazon India