Amazon India has announced that it is offering a 50% referral fee waiver to sellers ‘new to e-commerce.’ This offer is available to businesses that join the digital marketplace between January 15 and April 14, 2023.
With this, the e-commerce major aims to ‘incentivise’ brick-and-mortar businesses to go online. Those who join Amazon during this period will get the 50% waiver offer for a 60-day period.

For those who don’t know, every business selling its products on Amazon is liable to pay a referral fee. This charge accounts for the work done by the e-commerce giant to facilitate online sales.
Amazon hopes to attract new businesses to sell online
In a release, Amazon outlined how the businesses can benefit from this new initiative. The company noted, “This may possibly help businesses establish a foothold in the competitive e-commerce market by reducing their upfront costs and allowing them to work towards growing their business.”
Speaking about the waiver offer, Amit Nanda, Director of Selling Partner Services at Amazon India, said, ““As the new year begins, we are thrilled to announce a 50% referral fee waiver for ‘new to e-commerce’ businesses on Amazon.in. We believe that with the right support, small businesses can grow.”

Further, he emphasised the company’s goal to bring millions of small businesses in India on board in the next few years. He added, “This waiver is in line with our commitment to digitise 10 million Indian small businesses by 2025 by making it more cost effective to start their online journey.”
In a related development, Amazon launched a dedicated fleet of cargo planes in India with its ‘Amazon Air’ programme. This is expected to cut down delivery times across the subcontinent. Notably, this move made India only the third country to get Amazon’s freight planes as part of its logistics infrastructure.