The number of Indian businesses selling on the country’s Amazon marketplace is growing quickly and the e-commerce company is expanding to suit.
Amazon said this week that it will open seven new fulfillment centers (FCs) in India to accommodate the flourishing seller base. The new FCs have been opened in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Gurgaon, Pune and Mumbai, giving Amazon a total of 20 FCs operating in 10 states in India. In total, the FCs cover an area of more than 1.6 million square feet with a storage capacity of nearly 4 million cubic feet.
Those FCs are where online retailers who leverage Amazon’s services stock their inventory. The e-commerce giant has one of the most advanced fulfillment networks in the world. Sellers across India using the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service send their products to the FCs and once an order is placed, Amazon picks, packs and ships the order out to the customer.
With the additional FCs, Amazon said it will be able to offer its FBA service to small and medium-sized businesses located in these states, helping them gain access to and service customers throughout the country with lower operating costs. They will also allow for faster and quicker product deliveries to customers in these areas.
“Sellers on our marketplace have been witnessing exponential growth with overall volume growth exceeding 500 percent in the latest quarter and largely powered by our Fulfilled by Amazon service contributing more than 75 percent of total units,” said Amit Agarwal, vice president and country manager at Amazon India. “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.”
More than one million products are available for immediate shipping thanks to Amazon’s network of FCs in India. The amount of products will only grow with the expansion of FCs, benefitting both sellers and customers.
Related Stories
In June, the company opened its largest FC in India in the state of Telangana and soon after opened its first FC in the state of Punjab located in Ludhiana. Additional FCs are located in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
“This investment in fulfillment 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,” said Akhil Saxena, director of operations at Amazon India.