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How Amazon India is prioritizing the health and safety of associates and delivery partners
Now more than ever, Amazon's fulfillment, delivery, and physical store networks play a critical role in serving customers. In these unprecedented times, we remain committed to the health and safety of our employees, partners, and the customers we serve.
"We've changed our logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritize stocking and delivering essential items like household staples, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies," Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said in a recent email to all employees. "We're providing a vital service to people everywhere, especially to those, like the elderly, who are most vulnerable. People are depending on us."
We have adjusted our practices within our buildings through physical, virtual, and new formats for internal communications. With guidance from local authorities , and the World Health Organization (WHO), we've implemented a series of preventative health measures at our sites around the world to help keep our employees, partners, and customers safe.
Temperature checks
We have mandated temperature checks at all fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations in India in an effort to ensure that employees, associates, partners and support staff are healthy when they arrive at work. Anyone registering a temperature over 99.5F will be asked to return home and only come back to work after they’ve gone three days without a fever. At this point we will be testing thousands of people daily.
Personal protective equipment
We have reusable masks available now to Amazon associates, delivery service partners, Amazon Flex participants and other partners in our fulfilment network. These masks are available in all locations. All our associates are mandated to cover their nose and mouth from arrival through departure of their shifts at our sites, and also when they are out on the road during deliveries.
Increased frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites
We have increased the frequency and intensity of cleaning at all sites, including regular sanitization of door handles, handrails, touch screens, scanners, and other frequently touched areas. We're cleaning and disinfecting work stations regularly
We are consulting with health authorities and medical experts on how to handle building closures for deep cleaning, if an employee tests positive for COVID-19. Our process evaluates where the employee was in the building, for how long, how much time has passed since they were onsite, and who they interacted with, among other items, in determining whether we need to close. We also ask anyone at the site who was in close contact with the diagnosed individual to stay home with pay for 14-days in self-quarantine.
Local Shops on Amazon, a new beginning for offline retailers
We have always been keenly focused on enabling small businesses to benefit from the widest reach made possible by e-commerce and lean into the future. Our investments in technology and infrastructure have been singularly geared towards empowering their growth – be it innovations like 'Seller Flex' that has transformed thousands of seller locations to become digitized warehouses; or 'Easy Ship' that has allowed businesses to take advantage of our logistics to reach customers nationally; or ‘Global Selling’ that has allowed local manufacturers and brands go global reaching 350+ million customers.
Earlier this year, we renewed our commitment to India by announcing an additional investment of USD 1 billion to digitally enable 10 million micro, small, and medium businesses in the country by 2025, including artisans, manufacturers, retailers, and local shops. While we continue to double down on our efforts to widen reach and enable new market access for them, we are simultaneously working on building new capabilities to help them serve their locality, their towns and cities, more effectively.
Empowering local shopkeepers and retailers, to leverage the best of both worlds
Over the last 6 months, we have been running a pilot with 5,000+ offline retailers and local shops to bring the benefits of online selling closer to them. Code-named ‘Local Shops on Amazon,’ this program helps customers discover products from local shops in their city (many they already trust and love!) from the convenience of their homes, while helping shopkeepers supplement their footfalls with a digital presence and expand beyond their normal catchment. We expect this to be a win-win, as customers benefit from access to greater selection, faster deliveries, and additional value-added services, and local shops can transform themselves into digital stores. Additionally, shops can sign up for our existing programs that help them earn additional income – ‘I Have Space’ to act as delivery and pickup points, and ‘Amazon Easy’ to offer expanded selection to their walk-in customers.
Thousands of shopkeepers, from across the country, are already taking advantage of the pilot to showcase a wide range of products, ranging from consumer electronics to mattresses, kitchen items to grocery and consumables, apparel and shoes to gifts, and even fresh flowers and cakes! The pathbreakers include Delhi Electronics Plaza (Consumer Electronics, Delhi), mysleepyhead (Mattresses, Krishnagiri), Green Soul (Furniture, Mumbai), Sangeetha Mobiles (Mobile Phones, Bengaluru), Arya Organic Products (Grocery Consumables, Bengaluru), Comfort Bedding (Bedding & Mattresses, Delhi), Shoe Mistri (Shoes Care, Delhi), Electro Kart (Consumer Electronics, Delhi NCR), Madhuram (Electronics, Ahmedabad) The Mattress Hub (Mattresses, Delhi NCR), Electronics Shoppe (Consumer Electronics, Delhi NCR), Adith Electronics (Consumer Electronics, Hyderabad), Raw Pressery (Beverages, Mumbai), Weguarantee (Grocery and Healthcare, Lucknow) amongst others. We are energized by the response we have received so far. During one of our conversations with V.R. Chary – who runs Adith Electronics; a consumer electronics store in Ameerpet Cross Roads, Hyderabad – he mentioned about getting online orders from different parts of the city and the positive impact they were having on his overall earnings. He and his team are highly appreciative of the whole experience of receiving and fulfilling the orders.
