Amazon to open five more fulfillment centres in India

Amazon Seller Services India Pvt Ltd plans to open five more fulfillment centres, or warehouses, in Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Tauru (outskirts of Gurgaon), the company said in New Delhi today.

The additional storage capacity and its two existing centres, on the outskirts of Mumbai and Bangalore, would almost double Amazon's total storage capacity to over half million square feet, offering fulfillment services to thousands of retailers and small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the country, according to the company's statement, IANS reported.

Amit Agarwal, vice president and country manager, Amazon India, said the launch of these five new fulfillment centres was part of the retail giant's continued investment in providing fast and reliable delivery across vast product categories, and enable sellers of all sizes to achieve nationwide scale.

According to the statement, the centre in Chennai was already operational, while the remaining four would be operational next month.

The centres would cater to the needs of retailers and small and medium-sized businesses in Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan, while customers would benefit from faster shipping times and greater availability, it added.

Players in the e-Commerce market have been investing aggressively in infrastructure and logistics to offer better services to attract more customers, PTI reported.

Over the last few weeks, Indian e-retail leaders Flipkart and Snapdeal have opened such centres to ensure delivery within 24 hours to compete with other e-commerce firms to sell products like apparel, electronics and other lifestyle products.

Flipkart operates four fulfillment centres in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore and  plans to open more such centres in a bid to expand its seller base to 12,000 across 30 cities to cater to about 18 million registered users.

Snapdeal, has 40 centres across 15 cities, which it plans to double to 30 cities, to help its 30,000-seller base to cater to about over 25 million users.

e-Commerce firms had benefitted immensely from the growing internet penetration and found customers in even remote areas of the country. Analysts say such centres would help in delivering the same quality of service to those customers.