Amazon India, the leading online marketplace in the country, unveiled a fresh initiative to build a stronger connect between sellers and customers through the narration of stories behind the product.





Called the “Amazon Storyboxes”, they have information printed on each, narrating the stories of several unique sellers of the ecommerce platform.





For example, the story of Abdul Gafoor Khatri, who has kept his family’s 300-year-old art heritage alive through Rogan art painting. He is also a recipient of Padma Shri and created an art piece for former US President Barack Obama.





Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services, Amazon India (left) with a seller on their platform.





This is a part of Amazon’s campaign that was started three years ago to build a stronger connect between buyers and sellers.





“The idea was to tell a story of where a product is coming from and how it is reaching the customers. Often customers do not know the faces behind the product,” says Gopal Pillai, Vice President, Seller Services, Amazon India.





The StoryBoxes also have an interactive feature that enables customers to directly scan a seller's face on the box and land on a dedicated microsite that hosts many more stories.





Gopal says, the online world, unlike the offline environment, is missing a touch and feel element. Narrating the story on the delivery boxes creates a strong brand identity.





Amazon India has over five lakh small businesses, artisans, women entrepreneurs, and emerging brands selling on their marketplace. For now, it has selected six sellers to feature on these boxes that Amazon feels have unique stories to narrate.





These sellers come from diverse geographies such as Orissa, Meghalaya, and Periyakulam, Tamil Nadu.





Rani Ravindran, a homemaker from Periyakulam, who sells wooden toys and cotton pillows, is the first Amazon seller from that town. She is now helping others to get onto the online platform.





“It is very important and inspiring to narrate the story about the people behind these products as it is very unique,” says Gopal.





The initiative was launched for the first time by Amazon India in September, with 10 percent of their delivery boxes. Today, it has gone up to 50 percent. Eventually, the ecommerce giant plans to get 90 percent of its boxes to include stories on them by the end of November.





Gopal says, “We have showcased six seller stories on our boxes till now, and we will soon be scaling this initiative up to bring many more such stories.”









(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)