Amazon Local Finds, A New Section For Local Buying & Selling; Is It Accidentally Launched?
‘Local Finds’ is a new section within Amazon India portal, which it seems, has been accidentally launched on their portal.
We will share the reason why it seems an accidental launch in a little while.
But the interesting aspect is that Amazon India wants to dig deeper into the ‘localized’ experience of their users, and wants to connect the connect buyers and sellers via this platform.
Another very interesting feature of Local Finds: Besides offering fresh products, this section also features used products, especially in the books and mobile section.
Seems a very solid initiative from Amazon India.
Amazon Local Finds: First Impressions
Amazon India’s Local Finds can be accessed via this URL.
On the first impression, it seems a local flea market, with 10 categories: Books, Mobiles, Tablets, Video Games, Mobile Covers, Movies, Jewellery, Clothing, Home and Music.
When I clicked on every one of these categories, nothing showed up, maybe because there are no local sellers from Noida (where I am currently located), who are selling on Local Finds.
However, when I used some Google tricks to dig out content listed under this section, I discovered pretty interesting listings, all filed under Bangalore city.
For instance, this Jewellery section popped up, where housewives, freelance engineers etc have listed products such as earrings, bangles, bracelets and more.
The section of books listing came up, wherein there are lots of filters to choose from: various genres of books, prices, languages, authors and even used or new books. The layout of this section is same as that of the normal books sections inside the main portal.
One interesting section which we discovered was that of used mobiles and used books, which has been named as ‘Used and Refurbished Store’.
A detailed form also is also linked over here, wherein the user is explained how to list their products for selling on this section.
A dedicated section for refurbished mobiles is also listed, which mentions all the best selling brands, along with the prices.
Why Can This Be Accidental Launch?
a) At the time of writing, there has been no mention of ‘Local Finds’ on the homepage of Amazon.in, or any other sub-sections. These links we shared above have been discovered using specialised Google search.
b) Amazon.in hasn’t issued any press release or notification regarding the same.
In the US, Amazon had launched a local deals site, called Amazon Locals, which was shut down in 2015.
Although we couldn’t link these two services, one thing is sure: Amazon India wants to give their users a more localised, personalised experience, and Amazon Local Finds can be the trigger.
We will keep you updated.
