Amazon opening five new fulfillment centers across India

World's largest public listed consumer e-commerce firm Amazon Inc (this may change soon as Alibaba goes public), which runs an e-commerce marketplace in India through Amazon.in, is set to open five new fulfillment centers in cities including Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Tauru (outskirts of Gurgaon).

The fulfillment center in Chennai is already operational while the remaining four will be operational next month.

With the additional storage capacity and its two existing fulfillment centers on the outskirts of Mumbai and Bangalore, Amazon has almost doubled its total storage capacity to over half million square feet, offering services to thousands of retailers and small and medium businesses (SMBs) across the country. Amazon's two existing centres are spread across 150,000 square-feet area each.

The new centers will help the firm in meeting growing shipments from vendors who opt to get the products delivered through Amazon.

It would also help it decrease the delivery timelines for the customers.

"Sellers have greatly appreciated our Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, a pay-as-you-go service and a key feature of our e-commerce platform. A Q1 2014 survey conducted with sellers on Amazon.in who have used FBA showed 85 per cent of respondents reporting a sales increase since joining FBA, with about half of who have reported an increase of at least 30 per cent," said Amit Deshpande, director & GM seller services, Amazon India.

"We will continue to do the heavy lifting on behalf of sellers so that they can focus on providing our customers with vast selection at competitive prices and in turn sell more and earn more money," added Deshpande.

The new centres will also help it meet competition from heavily funded local competitors such as Flipkart and Snapdeal among others. Amazon.in was kicked off in June 2013 with just two categories—books and movies & TV shows. As a marketplace, the site does not sell products directly to the consumers, instead functions as a technology platform connecting sellers with buyers.

In addition to Amazon.in, the company runs a price comparison site called Junglee.com, which it had launched in February 2012. Amazon.in's delivery / fulfilment timeline

Nov 2013: Amazon.in starts offering its in-house logistics services, for order fulfillment for retailers running other e-commerce sites, akin to what Rocket Internet-backed Jabong implemented last year by handling third-party logistics for others through JaVAS, a short form for Jabong Value-Added Services.

Dec 2013: In an attempt to further increase its presentation in the country, the company piloted cash on delivery (CoD) with India Post. In the same month, the company also 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.

Jan 2014: The company opened its second fulfillment centre in Bangalore, two years after launching its first fulfillment centre in Mumbai. The new centre is spread across 150,000 square feet, and offers both inbound and outbound services.

Feb 2014: The company revealed its plans to use its own logistics service to handle the delivery of all products that its vendors sell through its e-commerce marketplace in India within two years. This would be a strategic move, which would entail skipping the traditional model of shipping products by e-com firms, which rely either fully or partly on third-party logistics service providers for delivery.