Amazon never hesitates to come up with something innovative in India. The e-commerce giant is trying its luck to spread its outgrowth in the offline markets as well. The technology-ridden neighbour hood stores in one of its key overseas markets and economies.
The American giant’s recent attempt is titled as “Smart Stores”. And exclusively for the India-specific initiative, Amazon is offering softwares to the stand physical stores to keep a digital log of the inventory they maintain in their shops and supplying them with a proper QR Code.
The idea behind this is when, the consumers walk-in to the store and scan this QR code with the Amazon app, they can view each and every item the shop has to offer. With this, the customers would also be able to view if there exists any discounts or reviews from other customers.
One can select the items and pay for it using Amazon pay. Amazon Pay in India provides a range of payment facilities, including the popular UPI, and debit and credit cards.
Amazon informed TechCrunch that it handled this initiative two months back and is formally inaugurating it now after witnessing the pre feedback. More than 10,000 shops, ranging from mom and pop stores to big retail chains, including Big Bazaar, MedPlus and More Supermarkets, have positioned the company’s system, it revealed.
The company assured these “digital storefronts” are a win-win opportunity for both consumers and small shop owners. Consumers do not bother to stay inside the store and have concerns about handling plastic cards or cash — that is, to encourage social distance — and they will also get benefits like rewards for using Amazon Pay.