Amazon, in Hunt for Lower Prices, Recruits Indian Merchants<br />But Amazon also sees India as a source of cheap and high-quality products<br />that can be sold on its American site, especially in crucial categories like apparel, to help it take market share from competitors like Walmart.<br />Mr. Murari often imitates designs sold by big American retailers,<br />but tried to undercut them on price, selling his versions for about $30 a set, slightly below Target’s prices and less than half of Bed Bath & Beyond’s prices for similar items.<br />Abhijit Kamra, who heads Amazon’s global selling program in India, said<br />that Americans already buy many products that are made in India, such as cotton towels.<br />For the holiday selling season that kicked off with Black Friday, the company spent months helping sellers prepare by stockpiling goods in the United States<br />and programming special “lightning deals” to generate shopper interest.<br />A merchant who chooses the full array of Amazon services, including buying advertising<br />and contracting with the company to store and deliver the products from Amazon’s American warehouses, typically hands over about one-third of the item’s sale price in fees and commissions.<br />Amazon, always on the lookout for ways to lower prices, has been aggressively recruiting<br />Indian vendors to sell their goods directly on the e-commerce giant’s American site.<br />For Indian merchants like Abhishek Middha, founder of The Boho Street, Amazon provides almost turnkey access to the American market.
