Amazon, one of India's largest online marketplaces, on Monday announced its new initiative called “COVID-19 Supplies Store”, which aims to help hospitals, businesses and social service groups purchase essential goods related to the pandemic in bulk.
The initiative comes under the Amazon Business service – which provides registered businesses and organisations with bulk purchasing solutions, irrespective of their size.
The store specifically provides for the instant need for apparel that helps shield from the infection, preventative gear, along with diagnostics and lab-related goods, including basic masks and sanitisers.
"The ’COVID-19 Supplies Store' is our effort towards providing institutional buyers with a one-stop shop for all their needs regarding safety and sanitisation products. The store seeks to serve bulk buying needs of healthcare professionals and organisations," the media quoted Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Category Management, Amazon India as saying.
The purchases made through Amazon’s ‘COVID-19 Supplies Store’ would come with bulk pricing benefits and varying quotes from multiple suppliers.
For now, Amazon has noted on its Supplies Store homepage that the "inventory is currently limited" and the online marketplace is "working to procure additional inventory".
In addition, the e-commerce giant has also declared it is waiving off all standard referral fees for all third party sellers and will not derive any profit from this special service.
Meanwhile, in the last 24 hours, India has registered a record spike in COVID-19-positive cases, with 4,213 new cases yielding a total of 67,152. The massive rise in the cases comes after the government allowed some relaxation amid the nation-wide lockdown which was imposed on 25 March.
