Amazon adds Marathi language for MSME sellers weeks after alleged MNS workers vandalised company godowns

Technology for MSMEs: Weeks after alleged workers of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) vandalised Amazon godowns in Mumbai and Pune over non-inclusion of Marathi language on its app and website, the e-commerce company on Sunday announced that sellers on the marketplace will now be able to register and manage their businesses in local language online. The company said that with the addition of Marathi language, more than 85,000 of its existing sellers and lakhs of new sellers from Tier-I and beyond markets such as Kolhapur, Nashik, Satara, Aurangabad, Solapur, Nagpur, Jalgaon, and more in Maharashtra will benefit with the launch of seller registrations and account management services in Marathi.

Sellers would be able to register themselves, manage orders and inventory, and access performance metrics in Marathi. The support would also include “Seller Support Services and Seller University videos and tutorials in Marathi,” Amazon said in a statement. Apart from Marathi, the services are available in Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil as well. Indian languages’ addition saw “over 50,000 new Amazon sellers sign up on the Amazon.in marketplace in a language of their convenience.”

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“Language is a prominent barrier that Indian MSME’s face when they seek to leverage eCommerce to expand their business. As we move to enable more micro, small and medium enterprises to embrace eCommerce, we remain committed to strengthening our vernacular, voice and video powered initiatives,” said Pranav Bhasin, Director- MSME & Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India. Amazon India marketplace for customers is currently available in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. The company would soon enable shopping in Bengali and Marathi languages as well. Flipkart shopping app and website, on the other hand, are operational in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada and would soon support Bengali language.

Pune City Police had arrested eight MNS workers in December in connection with the vandalism case at the Amazon office premises at Kondhwa Budruk, The Indian Express had reported. Amazon had earlier moved court against the party and its affiliate which had allegedly threatened to block the company’s operations in Mumbai for failing to add the Marathi language, according to the report. A Mumbai court had subsequently sent a notice to MNS chief Raj Thackeray, asking him to appear before it on January 5. However, after the notice, MNS workers in Pune had allegedly ransacked the Kondhwa Budruk premises on December 25. According to a PTI report, alleged MNS workers had vandalised Amazon’s warehouses at Marol in Mumbai and in Pune on December 25.

In order to enhance its vernacular offerings, Amazon had launched Alexa on its shopping app in March 2020 for Android devices. Amazon Prime Video makes titles available in Hindi, English, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Telugu, Kannada, Punjabi, and Bengali in addition to English. In 2019, Amazon had launched an automated messaging assistant in Hindi.