Amazon India will support, train and empower women entrepreneurs from across India associated with
thousands of Self Help Groups (SHG) to embrace online selling and become profitable
On International Women’s Day, customers can get access to unique products by women entrepreneurs
on Amazon Saheli storefront

New Delhi, March 5 2020: Ahead of International Women’s Day, Amazon India today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)* of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, as part of its pioneering program - Amazon Saheli. Through this partnership, Amazon India will support, train and empower women entrepreneurs from across India associated with thousands of Self Help Groups (SHG) of the DAY-NULM State Missions** and provide a marketplace for women entrepreneurs to showcase their products to Amazon customers across the country. The partnership will of benefit thousands of women entrepreneurs.

DAY-NULM believes that any livelihood promotion programme can be scaled up in a time-bound manner only if driven by the poor and their institutions. DAY-NULM aims at partnership with the private sector in providing skill training, employment and operation of shelter for homeless. It strives for active participation of private and civil society sectors in providing shelter to the urban homeless, skill training and placement of the urban poor and also in facilitating technological, marketing and hand holding support for the urban poor entrepreneurs who want to be self-employed and set up their own small businesses or manufacturing units.

The Amazon Saheli team will work closely with DAY-NULM State Missions’ SHGs to provide the women entrepreneurs a marketplace for selling their products and support them through seamless onboarding assistance, imaging and cataloging, product listing, subsidized referral fee and free account management. With this partnership, Amazon India will bring in the regional selection and unique products across categories like grocery, home and fashion accessories made by women entrepreneurs.

Speaking about the initiative, Secretary, MoHUA Shri D.S. Mishra shared “What better way to celebrate International Women’s Day than to provide women entrepreneurs from across the country a global platform for their products. The Government of India is focused on building sustainable public-private partnerships that positively impact every section of society. This collaboration will be instrumental in unleashing the innate entrepreneurial potential of urban women.”

Joint Secretary and Mission Director – DAY-NULM, Shri Sanjay Kumar shared “Besides providing access to national/international market, the initiative will help in standardization of the products and capacity building of the women entrepreneurs that will go a long way”.

Talking about the partnership, Mr. Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services, Amazon Indiasaid, “At Amazon, we see entrepreneur sellers of all sizes and businesses of various scale from all over India growing. And a large percentage of entrepreneur sellers on A.in today are women, across diverse age groups, economic backgrounds and they are from different parts of the country. The presence and number of women entrepreneurs on the Amazon.in marketplace has been growing substantially over the past few years, especially since the inception of our dedicated program Amazon Saheli. Through this partnership with The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, Government of India, we seek to further drive disruptive change and transform the lives of women entrepreneurs from across the country. We want to enable and empower women entrepreneurs who nurture the dream of starting something of their own, and support them in achieving their dreams and becoming successful entrepreneurs.”

Launched in November 2017, with SEWA and Impulse Social Enterprise, Amazon Saheli currently has a diverse range of products listed by women entrepreneurs. The program offers extensive training and skill development workshops for its partners to help women entrepreneurs understand the nuances of online selling and, develop skills & capabilities necessary to grow their business on Amazon.in. The training workshops comprise of sessions on listing of products, imaging & cataloging, packaging & shipping, inventory & account management and customer servicing. The workshops are free of cost and offer exclusive benefits including assisted onboarding and mentorship programs. Today, Amazon Saheli works with 36 partners with the reach of 280,000+ women entrepreneurs. Currently, the Saheli program includes women entrepreneurs like housewives, domestic helpers, artisans etc. with thousands of products across 10 categories like apparel, jewelry, groceries etc.

For more information contact: 

Shashank Rathod
Amazon India
Mobile: +91 8722224778
Email: rathshas@amazon.com

About DAY-NULM:

A Flagship programme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots level institutions of the poor.

About Amazon.in

The Amazon.in marketplace is operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). Amazon.in seeks to build the most customer-centric online destination for customers to find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online by giving them more of what they want – vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience; and provide sellers with a world-class e-commerce marketplace.

For more information, visit www.amazon.in/aboutus

For news on Amazon, follow www.twitter.com/AmazonNews_IN

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.