Amazon is expanding its logistics activities in India with new payment and delivery services and also fulfilment centres to take on local market leaders Flipkart and Snapdeal.
The US e-commerce giant, which has invested US$2 billion to build up its business in India, introduced ‘India’s first integrated payments and logistics offering for e-commerce websites’ on Friday shortly after announcing plans for seven more fulfilment centres around the country.
With the new product offering, brands and businesses who want to sell through their own website can use ‘Pay with Amazon’ for order management and ‘Amazon Easy Ship’ for delivery and fulfilment. The e-commerce company explained that the integrated offering allows Indian businesses to scale and grow their business at low operational costs by leveraging on its investments in payments, logistics, transportation and customer service. Sellers and brands can enable buyers on their website to use their Amazon account, pay through a wide variety of payment methods including COD and get their products delivered using Amazon’s delivery infrastructure.
Amazon Easy Ship is an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India, an innovation specifically designed for India. Upon receiving an order from a customer, merchants will schedule a pick-up of the order by an Amazon delivery associate. The associate will pick up the package from the merchants’ doorstep and deliver it to the customer.
Sellers benefit from low shipping rates, COD and pre-paid orders, scheduled pickups, faster delivery and automated shipment tracking, while customers get track-able shipments, COD and pre-paid orders and faster and predictable delivery time, the company explained.
“Brands and businesses are looking to convert their static websites into digital storefronts and tap into the growing base of online shoppers in the country. We have made it simple and easy for them to outsource their payments and fulfilment processes and enabled them to focus on their core business. Amazon is committed to transforming the way India buys and sells and we are always looking for ways to help businesses leverage India’s growing digital economy,” said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India.
Meanwhile, Amazon India has also opened seven new Fulfilment Centres (FCs) in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Gurgaon, Pune and Mumbai. It now has 20 FCs operational across 10 states in India covering a total area of over 1.6 million square feet with a storage capacity of nearly four million cubic feet.
Earlier in June, Amazon had opened its largest FC in India in the state of Telangana and a few weeks later inaugurated its first FC in the state of Punjab in Ludhiana. Today, Amazon.in FCs are present in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.
The FCs will allow Amazon.in to offer its Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service to thousands of small and medium businesses in these states and empower them to gain access to and service customers across the country at significantly low operating costs. They will also enable faster and quicker delivery of products to amazon.in customers in these regions.
“Sellers on our marketplace have been witnessing exponential growth with overall volume growth exceeding 500% in the latest quarter and largely powered by our Fulfilled by Amazon service contributing more than 75% of total units. We remain committed to investing in our fulfillment and logistics capability to enable and empower sellers to serve customers nationally at lower costs and increase sales,” Agarwal commented.
“This investment in fulfilment infrastructure before the upcoming festive season will enable thousands of sellers to take advantage of Amazon’s FBA services and grow exponentially during the country’s biggest shopping season and enable us to offer our guaranteed fast delivery promises to more customers during the festive season,” added Akhil Saxena, Director, Operations, Amazon India.
Amazon Fulfilment Centres are warehouses where online retailers who use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) services stock their inventory. Amazon claims it has created one of the most advanced fulfillment networks in the world and sellers in India have been benefitting from Amazon’s expertise in fulfillment, reliable nationwide delivery and customer service.
When using FBA, sellers across India send their products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres and once an order is placed, Amazon picks, packs and ships the order to the customer, provides customer service and manages returns on behalf of the sellers. Orders fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Cash on Delivery, Guaranteed Next-Day, Same Day, Release Day and Sunday delivery.
Sellers save money by replacing their upfront capital expense with low variable cost and pay only for the storage space they use and the orders Amazon fulfils. Sellers always have the flexibility to choose the number of products they want to have fulfilled by Amazon and scale according to their business requirements. Globally, sellers converting items to FBA generally see a 30-40% uplift in sales.
In April, Amazon India extended delivery services with a new Sunday delivery offer in 100 cities across the country. The offer applied for residential deliveries of all FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) products at no extra cost.
