Amazon India helps artisans, weavers double their sales in 10 weeks

The 'Stand for Handmade' initiative, to help over 10 lakh artisans and weavers and women entrepreneurs, enabled sellers from Amazon Karigar (for weavers and artisans) and Amazon Saheli (for women entrepreneurs) to register 3.2 times and 2.1 times growth, respectively.

While 32 sellers crossed Rs 1 lakh in sales during the 10-week period, two sellers crossed Rs 1 crore in sales.

More than 200 new sellers joined the Karigar programme and benefited from 100 per cent SoA (sell on Amazon) fee waiver, impacting lives of over 35,000 artisans and weavers, the company said in a statement.

"We are humbled by the response to this initiative as customers from more than 12,000 pincodes purchased a product from the specially-curated store front. With the festive season coming up, we remain focused on helping our sellers further accelerate and grow their business," said Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME and Seller Experience at Amazon India.

Top categories that witnessed highest overall sales included apparel, grocery and home decor. Over 200 Karigar and Saheli sellers witnessed sales for the first time as part of this initiative.

Nearly 508 Sambalpuri weaver families from Orissa were able to seller sarees than could span over 17,738 yards while more than 4,500 Pochampally weavers from 56 villages of Telangana have recovered and were able to resume their handloom weaving business, Amazon India informed.

"More than 5,200 weavers from Bengal are now back to weaving exquisite weaves on their looms and the lives of 200 Banarasi weavers were positively impacted through sales of handloom Dupattas and Sarees," it added.

Amazon India's 'Stand for Handmade' initiative was aimed at helping over 10 lakh entrepreneurs including artisans, weavers and women entrepreneurs, rebound from the economic disruption caused by Covid-19.

Under this initiative, more than 8 lakh artisans and weavers from Amazon Karigar program and more than 2.8 lakh women entrepreneurs from Amazon Saheli program benefited from a 100 per cent SoA fee waiver for 10 weeks.

"The 'Stand for Handmade' initiative is part of our continuous efforts to help small businesses including artisans, weavers and women entrepreneurs to revive their business from the economic disruption caused by the pandemic," said Bhasin.