Amazon launches seller registrations and account management services in Tamil

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

Chennai, October 27, 2020: In a major step towards breaking the language barrier for lakhs of Indian entrepreneurs, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), local shops and retailers from Tamil Nadu to benefit from ecommerce, Amazon today announced that sellers will be able to register on Amazon.in marketplace and manage their online business in Tamil. This includes everything from registering as an Amazon seller for the first time to managing orders, inventory management and accessing performance metrics – all of it in the language of their preference. The 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 Tamil.

The launch of seller registrations and account management services in Tamil will benefit over 43,500 Amazon existing sellers and lakhs of new sellers from tier – 1 and below markets like Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Ranipet in Tamil Nadu. To launch the services in Tamil for sellers, Amazon.in worked with expert linguists to develop an accurate and comprehensible experience in Tamil.  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 Tamil is followed by the recently launched seller registrations and account management services in Hindi which saw thousands of new Amazon sellers from markets like Darbhanga in Bihar, Barmer in Rajasthan, Mahoba in Uttar Pradesh, Hailakandi in Assam and Bardhaman in West Bengal sign up on the Amazon.in marketplace.

Pranav Bhasin, Director – MSME & Seller Experience, Amazon India said, “Our vision has been to enable every motivated seller anywhere in the country to reach customers across India and every country in the world. As we look at enabling more and more of Indian MSMEs to embrace ecommerce to grow, we continue to double down our efforts on vernacular, voice and video powered initiatives. The launch of the vernacular registration and account management experience for sellers in Tamil is a major step in that direction.” He adds “This becomes all the more significant today as businesses are exploring e-commerce as a means to expand their reach and grow their business.”

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 Tamil. Amazon will continue to evolve the experience to add more features in the Tamil, 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 September this year, ahead of the Great Indian Festival, Amazon.in launched shopping experience in four new Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. In March this year, 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.

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.