Amazon lets Indian SMEs dive into Black Friday, Cyber Monday promotions

Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, for the first time has enabled over 5,000 Indian sellers to participate in the ongoing Christmas shopping season sales in the US — Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Over 5,000 Indian sellers would be able to offer close to 1,00,000 products across several  categories on Amazon.com. Customers will be able to purchase these items from India section, listed on Amazon.com during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The company said that it has already shipped nearly 1,00,000 products across electronics, accessories, cookware, clothing, luxury products, toys, home décor, etc.to Amazon Fulfilment Centres in the US for the online shopping festival. The products will be made available for one-day-delivery at customers’ doorstep through the “Amazon Prime Program”.
The fourth Friday of November each year is earmarked for Black Friday where retailers in the US offer exciting discounts to customers. The four-day Black Friday weekend ends with Cyber Monday. These four days account for the biggest holiday shopping season in the US.
It’s estimated that in 2014 consumers made USD50.9 billion worth of purchases – an 11% drop from the previous year and the lowest figure since 2010, but it is still the biggest shopping day of the year in the US by margin.
Electronics, accessories, cookwares, clothing, luxury items, toys, home décor , books, video games, DVDs and other media products typically witness very high demand from consumers during these events.
According to the National Retail Federation, 44% of shoppers will be making their purchases online, the highest figure in the survey’s history. About 55% of smartphone users are also expected to do some research via mobiles.
“The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are a seller’s delight on account of heightened shopper excitement and high shopper traffic. We chose to offer this opportunity for Indian SMEs to participate in the sale under our Global Selling Program. We will continue to innovate for sellers and help them grow their business by leveraging Amazon’s state-of-the-art technology, world class logistics infrastructure and customer service expertise,” an Amazon spokesperson told Indiaretailing.
“Apart from assisting shoppers with insights on demand, compliance and logistics services, we have also set up dedicated telephonic support for Indian sellers on Amazon.com during Indian business hours to ensure a smooth selling experience,” he added.
Special products from Indian sellers being made available on Amazon.com include a variety of electronic accessories, brass idols, nautical instruments, bed sheets, tapestries, cushion covers, sports accessories and a wide range of apparel such as leggings, women’s  tops, tunics, etc. etc. Shoppers in the US will also be able to shop from a variety of Indian handicrafts, leather jackets, cricket bats and herbal health-wellness products.
Meanwhile, ebay and Jabong have also introduced the Black Friday sale concept in India. Where ebay brought the popular promotion seven days early in India on November 20, Jabong has announced its Black Friday weekend sale from November 27 to 30.
In the past few months, Amazon has closely engaged with sellers to provide them insights on these bestsellers and has worked backwards to enable them to offer products in these categories to global customers at best price.