After initially launching a buying and selling platform in Bengaluru in late 2016, Amazon India has now expanded the Local Finds service to three more cities in the country – Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad, allowing individuals in those areas to carry out customer-to-customer transactions. Users in those cities, in addition to Bengaluru, will now be able to buy and sell used items and other products including mobile devices, laptops, tablets, accessories, video games, books, music, and movies through the platform.
In an effort to draw more customers to using Local Finds to search, purchase, and sell a wide variety of products, Amazon India is aiding customers in processing deliveries and payments for items bought and sold, with the company noting that there are now around 30,000 individuals using the platform. This marks a significant growth since the service’s pilot testing kicked off in Bengaluru, where 600 customers initially used Local Finds to sell products. Unlike other existing platforms in India that offer a similar service, Local Finds is sparing customers the burden of scheduling meet-ups with buyers, which would be unsafe in some instances, not to mention that their time could be wasted on long traffic waits while traveling to their meeting place. Instead, customers only need to provide a product description before declaring an item as available for sale. Amazon India will then communicate with the seller and schedule a date for the item to be picked up and delivered to the buyer. Mahendra Nerurkar, Director of New Initiatives at Amazon India, explained that Local Finds aims to connect sellers and buyers and handle shipments and payments of products in a seamless fashion.
Additionally, the platform comes with a cashback offer of up to Rs. 100 for certain products and offers an extra profit of Rs. 500 to users who are able to sell five items through Local Finds. Amazon India has been busy launching new products and services that cater to customers in the South Asian country in recent times. This June, the company started offering a 20 percent cashback to customers who signed up for the Amazon Prime service and is expected to introduce more similar initiatives in the future.