Will Hindi e-commerce change retail?
Local language speakers are nearly 100 million strong. Will it fuel the next phase of growth for e-commerce players?
Local language speakers are nearly 100 million strong. Will it fuel the next phase of growth for e-commerce players?
Brief:
Amazon recently launched its app in Hindi. E-commerce giants aren’t just targeting English speaking people.
They want to reach out to people speaking local languages such as Hindi. They are targeting the next 100 million customers.
They are also targeting Rural India:
Bloomberg reports how Amazon takes merchandise to rural India.
On the first day of each month, Gangadhar distributes leaflets around his village listing Amazon’s deals on exotic global brands such as Pampers, Gillette razors, Olay moisturizer, and Pillsbury cake mix. “Don’t be scared of online shopping, make friends with it,” the handout counsels.
When his customers order by noon, Amazon delivers packages to the store the next day via a logistics company called StoreKing. When packages arrive, as a small box addressed to a tea shop owner named Appaji did on a recent afternoon, Gangadhar leaves his wife at the store to make deliveries on foot. He grew up in the village and knows almost everyone by name.
Insight:
One, it integrates the unorganized brick and mortar retail with its ecosystem. It’s a win win for small retailers in villages and e-commerce giants. It will be an upgrade for millions of businesses. They will earn more, and learn about the new technology. It can have a multiplier effect.
Two, users living in far off areas have access to merchandise, which only people living in cities had.