Amazon India Launches B2B App Marketplace

Amazon India is rolling out an online marketplace to connect vendors on its platform to B2B services.

Reports in the Economic Times of India on Monday (Aug. 12) said Amazon’s Marketplace Appstore is now live in India, allowing sellers to access third-party applications to promote automation, business management and growth. Businesses can access services developed by Amazon as well as other third-party service providers across 13 categories, including accounting and tax, inventory management, eCommerce solution services and others.

Businesses can access the app marketplace via the Amazon Seller Central dashboard.

“The platform is designed to connect the right developer with the right seller to ensure that both parties can succeed,” said Amazon India Vice President, Marketplace Gopal Pillai in a statement. “We want to become the go-to solution for sellers to access business tools for their various needs and minimize the time, effort and money otherwise spent on searching and experimenting for appropriate solutions.”

Amazon first debuted its Marketplace Appstore last year in North America. At the time the company said in a statement, “Many developers have innovated and created applications that complement our tools and integrate with our service. We created the Marketplace Appstore to help businesses more easily discover these applications, streamline their business operations and ultimately create a better experience for our customers.”

Meanwhile, Amazon has been strengthening its position in India with the addition of other services and tools both for buyers and sellers.

In March Amazon India announced the rollout of kiosks across the country to help consumers purchase a range of Amazon hardware products, including the Kindle eBook reader and the Echo.

“The Amazon Devices Kiosk gives customers a first-hand experience with the devices. Customers can walk up to the kiosk and take an assisted live demo of Kindle, Fire TV and Echo family of devices with the help of the store staff before purchasing devices,” the company said in a statement. “The store staff is also available to solve customer queries, pre- and post-purchase.”