Laptops cheaper than smartphones: Best deals under Amazon India's 'Back to Class' sale

Company News : In its 'Back to College' sale and 'Back to class' offers, Amazon India has since June 8 been offering very exciting deals especially for school and college students. The sale, to continue till June 11, is centred around products particularly of interest to students.

Here are some of the best deals that are currently running on Amazon India for students:

Back to Class Sale


Under the 'Back to Class' sale, Amazon India is offering huge discounts and offers on books, school bags, sports & fitness accessories and basic school supplies.

Books

For students in class 10, the e-commerce giant is offering Oswaal social science CBSE chapter-wise and topic-wise question banks with complete solutions (for March 2018 exam) for Rs 215. The deal is available as a lightning deal and is valid till 2 pm on June 9. At current lightening deal price, the book is selling at a discount of 46 per cent.

Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon For students looking for a book on English language for class 10, Amazon is offering All in One English communicative by Gajendra Singh at Rs 227, down from Rs 350, a discount of 35 per cent. The book is also a part of lightning deals.

School bags

Amazon is offering school bags for as low as Rs 500 under the 'Back to Class' sale. Currently, the portal is offering a backpack made by Kuber Industries for as low as Rs 590 under its lightning deals. The actual price of the product is Rs 1,298. Under the current sale, the product is available at a discount of 55 per cent.

There is another spacious school bag with 30 litres of space that is currently retailing at a discount of 55 per cent. The backpack is available under lightning deals and is selling for Rs 817, down from Rs 1,798.

Amazon lent $1 billion to merchants to boost sales on its marketplace

Loans range from $1,000 to $750,000. Sellers have said interest rates are between 6% and 14%

Company News : Amazon. com Inc has stepped up lending to third-party sellers on its site who are looking to grow their business, a company executive said in an interview on Wednesday.

The e-commerce giant has doled out more than $1 billion in small loans to sellers in the past 12 months, compared with more than $1.5 billion it lent from 2011 through 2015, said Peeyush Nahar, vice president for Amazon Marketplace. Sellers have used the money to expand their inventory or discount items on Amazon, he said.

Boosting sales for third-party merchants is lucrative for Amazon, which takes a cut of transactions on its site.

It also has made a business out of handling more leg work for sellers, too. They pay Amazon to fulfill their orders and boost their placement in search results, without which sellers might struggle to grab shoppers' attention.

More than 20,000 small businesses have received a loan from Amazon and more than half of those have taken a second loan from the company, it said.

Loans range from $1,000 to $750,000. Sellers have said interest rates are between 6 percent and 14 percent.

Rivals, including eBay Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, now are doubling down on their marketplace businesses, but loans may help keep sellers close to Amazon's orbit.

"We do tell them it's to help them grow on the Amazon Marketplace," Nahar said.

Traditional lenders shied away from small merchants after the 2008 financial crisis, which created an opening for other sources of financing. While this exposes Amazon to additional credit risk, the company has near real-time data on sellers' businesses and access to their customer reviews, which are helpful in deciding whether to make a loan.

The loan program is invitation-only.

Amazon has issued loans to sellers in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

The company has said it would expand to other countries where it operates marketplaces, such as Canada, France and China. On the rollout's timing, Nahar said, "Stay tuned."