Amazon rolls out premium shipping service in India

World's largest e-commerce firm Amazon Inc, which runs an e-commerce marketplace in India through Amazon.in, has rolled out premium shipping services in the country whereby customers will get guaranteed delivery of their items for a fee. However, the guaranteed delivery options are available only for items fulfilled by Amazon.

The delivery charge for guaranteed one-day delivery is Rs 99 per order, while it is Rs 79 for guaranteed two-day delivery (for a limited period, this option will be available at Rs 49 per order). Only certain PIN codes are eligible for primary shipping service. To get one's order within the guaranteed delivery time, he/she needs to select that particular delivery option during checkout.

Note that large and heavy items do not qualify for the premium delivery even if they are fulfilled by Amazon. The delivery guarantee applies to 'attempted delivery' by the promised date. What this means is that Amazon will not be responsible for guaranteed delivery, if the customer is not present at the delivery address to receive the delivery.

In case customers don't get their items on time, they will get their charges refunded automatically (applicable for one or two-day delivery).

Last week, we had reported that Amazon India will offer its in-house logistics services for order fulfilment for retailers running other e-commerce sites. This would be akin to what Rocket Internet-backed Jabong.com implemented last year by handling third-party logistics for others through JaVAS, a short form for Jabong Value-Added Services. JaVAS is independent from Jabong in operations and has a separate team and does not use Jabong's resources like warehouses, etc.