E-Commerce Giant Amazon Creates Special Storefront to Support Women-Owned Businesses

By: WE Staff | Friday, 5 March 2021

Amazon India has launched a special storefront that consists of almost 80,000 unique products that are made available by more than 450 women-led small businesses on its market place. On the basis of every transaction made on storefront ,the e-commerce major which has partnered with UN women to support women-led businesses will make a contribution to NGO partner 'Nanhi Kali' to sponsor for education of underprivileged girls. Company runs various programmes including Saheli and Launchpad that aims to represent women in businesses and promote women entrepreneurship.

Women have just started to enter the field of business breaking all the stereotypes but Pandemic and Lockdown has effected many sectors including business, and the women-owned business are the one which were hit the hardest, leaving women vulnerable to the loss of livelihoods. It is like stamping on the sampling that had just started to shoot-up.

Penetration of Women-owned businesses in India has seen an inclination and this has been possible by consistent investment from national and state governments, private sectors, financial organizations and educational institutions. In case of Amazon, for every customer order from the storefront, it will donate Rs 25 to NGO partner, Nanhi kali towards sponsoring education of underprivileged girls. Additional to this  it will also send limited edition bookmarks that contains inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs  with the books purchased from e-commerce. It can be said as the step taken to inspire more women to come forward and achieve their dreams.

The measure taken by the Government under various programmes towards skilling and promoting women-led businesses were highlighted by Smriti Zuben Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development. She also praised the work of six million women who were at the frontline of managing COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have the privilege of serving over 70 million female entrepreneurs in our country...over Rs 309 billion (Rs 30,900 crore) especially in the pandemic was transferred to the bank account of 226 million Indian women, so that they can have access to credit or for that matter, access to ready cash, thereby strengthening their purchasing power, especially in the time of the pandemic," she added. 

There are also initiatives under the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to develop women entrepreneurship to achieve gender-inclusive economic growth.

Susan Ferguson, UN Representative India, said accelerating growth in the number as well as the size of women-owned businesses not only empowers women but also can generate transformational employment in India. 

"It can create 170 million jobs by 2030 and the online environment has certainly helped reach this growth. Online sales have become a necessity since the pandemic. Through e-commerce platforms, women entrepreneurs can tap into new markets anywhere in the world," she added. 

The greatest tributes that a women can get to is to signify to the world at large that their businesses and their business intentions and capacities are as robust and as equal to male entrepreneurs.