• To help lakhs of Indian MSMEs to overcome language barriers to embrace the ecommerce opportunity
• The Kannada language seller experience is available on Seller Central website and the Seller Mobile App 

Bengaluru, January 31, 2021: In a major step towards breaking the language barrier for lakhs of Indian entrepreneurs, MSMEs, local shops and retailers from Karnataka to benefit from ecommerce, Amazon today announced that sellers will be able to register on the Amazon.in marketplace and manage their online business in Kannada. This includes everything from registering as an Amazon seller for the first time, to managing orders, inventory management and accessing performance metrics – all in the language of their preference. This experience has been made available on the Amazon seller website as well as on the mobile app. Amazon also provides Seller Support Services and Seller University videos and tutorials in Kannada.

The launch of seller registrations and account management services in Kannada will benefit over 35,000 existing Amazon sellers and lakhs of new sellers from tier – 1 and below markets like Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hubballi, Kalaburgi and Mysuru among many cities in Karnataka. To launch the services in Kannada for sellers, Amazon.in worked with expert linguists to develop an accurate and comprehensible experience.  The team has chosen commonly used terms over perfectly translated words to make the experience authentic, easily understandable and seamless for sellers. The launch in Kannada is followed by the recently launched seller registrations and account management services in Hindi and Tamil, which saw over 50,000 new Amazon sellers sign up on the Amazon.in marketplace in a language of their convenience.

"Ease of doing business is a key priority for the government, and our focus is on helping businesses adopt technology to be successful in markets. Technology and e-commerce will play a crucial role in boosting the growth of millions of small and medium businesses in domestic as well as international markets, in the coming days. By introducing self-registration for sellers in Kannada, Amazon is taking yet another step towards enabling micro, small and medium enterprises leverage e-commerce to grow their business. The ability to conduct their business in Kannada will greatly benefit the SMBs and MSMEs in Karnataka, eliminate language barriers, and help them succeed”, said Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka.

Pranav Bhasin, Director- MSME & Seller Experience, Amazon India said, “Amazon India’s vision is to enable every motivated seller anywhere in the country to reach customers in India and every country in the world. Language is a prominent barrier that Indian MSME’s face when they seek to leverage ecommerce to expand their business. As we move to enable more micro, small and medium enterprises to embrace ecommerce, we remain committed to strengthening our vernacular, voice and video powered initiatives. We, at Amazon India shall continue to eliminate barriers faced by these businesses and facilitate ease of business. The launch of the vernacular registration and account management experience for sellers in Kannada is a major step in that direction.” 

Amazon Sellers who wish to change their preferred language can change it in a few simple steps on both Amazon’s Seller website and Seller mobile app. Sellers registering through the Desktop can change their preferred language by accessing the ‘language drop-down’ available on every page, at the top-right corner. On the Seller App, the language can be changed through the language drop-down on the bottom left corner while registering and through the App ‘Settings’ menu. Once the language is changed, sellers can view all pages and workflows in Kannada. Amazon will continue to evolve the experience to add more features in Kannada, helping thousands of SMBs to enjoy the benefits of registering and managing their business in a language of their choice and convenience.

Amazon India has been innovating to expand the e-commerce opportunity to both customers and businesses in the areas of Vernacular, Voice and Video enabled initiatives for the past few years. In March 2020, Alexa was introduced on the Amazon shopping app for Android devices to help users shop using voice commands. Amazon Alexa, a cloud-based voice service that powers Echo range of smart speakers, also understands proper nouns in various languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu etc. With the launch of Alexa in Hindi, customers can ask questions and interact with Alexa in Hindi or Hinglish, in addition to English. In September 2020, ahead of the Great Indian Festival, Amazon.in launched shopping experience in four new Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. 

Furthermore, Amazon Prime Video makes titles available in Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi and Bengali in addition to English. Users can browse through Prime Video experience in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in addition to English. Authors can self-publish their work on Kindle Direct Publishing in five Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati in addition to English. In 2019, Amazon launched an Automated Messaging Assistant in Hindi. Amazon has also added video summaries to help customers get a quick overview of the product and an immersive shopping experience. Customers can also speak to Amazon Customer Service executives in 5 Indian languages including English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil.

It’s still Day 1! 

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

For more information contact: 

Shashank Rathod
Amazon India
rathshas@amazon.com

Urvika Pandey
MSL Group
urvika.pandey@publicisconsultants-asia.com