World

Amazon Launching 'Project Zero' in India to Shield Online Shoppers from Counterfeit Products

New Delhi (Sputnik): Global e-commerce giant Amazon has launched a new way to tackle the issue of product forgery, which has been an issue in India, leaving online shoppers duped many a time.
Sputnik

To ensure all products on its platform are authentic, Amazon has launched its "Project Zero" in India where there are over 150 million registered users, Indian media reported late Tuesday.

In 2018, Amazon became one of the top players in the country's $33 billion e-commerce market.

With "Project Zero", Amazon plans to identify, block and remove counterfeits from its online shopping platform through – automated protections, self-service counterfeit removal tools and product serialization - that will allow Amazon to individually scan and confirm the authenticity of every single purchase of a brand's enrolled products.

An unspecified number of local Indian brands participated in the experimental pilot of "Project Zero" to help the company test the experience in India.

According to media reports, over 7,000 foreign brands from across the US, Europe and Japan enrolled themselves in Amazon's "Project Zero".

Lately, the e-commerce giant has been focusing on expanding with new features and services on the Indian market.

Since only 10 per cent of India's over 1.37 billion population speak the English language, earlier in 2018, Amazon added the Hindi language as a step towards making India its next big market.

Earlier this year, while Indian citizens were debating over making Hindi the national language, Amazon rolled out Hindi language support for its digital assistant Alexa.

In October, information from an Indian business insights platform - Paper.v claimed that Amazon is investing a fresh $630 million (Rs. 4,472 crores) into three of its Indian subsidiaries – Amazon Pay, Amazon Retail, and Amazon Sellers.

According to reports, the company aims to reach the 500 million mark in the country.

"With this launch, we're excited to see many more brands in India, from small and emerging entrepreneurs, to large multi-national brands, partner with us to drive counterfeits to zero, and deliver a great shopping experience for our customers," reports quoted Dharmesh M. Mehta, vice president of worldwide customer trust & partner support as saying.
Discuss