After local shops, Amazon extends support to Covid-hit small, medium logistics partners with new fund

Logistics for MSMEs: E-commerce firm Amazon is looking to help its small and midsize logistics partners, which are impacted due to the Covid-19 lockdown, financially through a new Partner Support Fund. The company will provide one-time disbursement to package delivery businesses known as Delivery Service Partners and ‘select’ transportation partners associated with Amazon. This will “enable them to provide financial aid to close to 40,000 of their staff for the month of April,” Amazon said. The fund will also help these SMEs in their “critical fixed infrastructure costs, and support liquidity and cash flow,” as they resume business post lockdown. The size of the fund and disbursement limit to each beneficiary partner has not been disclosed by the company.

“This one-time special Partner Support Fund is designed to enable partners to assist close to 40,000 of their associates through financial hardships and will help our small business partners in logistics get back on their feet at the earliest when the economy reopens,” Akhil Saxena, VP, Customer Fulfilment Operations, APAC, MENA & LATAM, Amazon in a statement. The latest initiative underscores Amazon’s focus on strengthening its community of small and medium business partners including sellers. The company currently has over 5.5 lakh sellers on its marketplace of which most are small businesses.