Amazon unveils new fulfilment centres as ecommerce rivalry heats up in India

Amazon India on Thursday said it has opened up 10 new fulfillment centres in the country and expanded seven such existing centres, to increase goods' storage capacity by 20%.

The global ecommerce giant’s India network now has over 60 fulfillment centres that are spread across 15 states, holding a total storage capacity of over 32 million cubic feet, the statement said.

The new FCs, it said, are for the goods category of large appliances and furniture category, and will also house receive centres. The new centres are located in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad.

The recently introduced receive centre is a product collection point where sellers ship their products for further distribution across Amazon’s FC network, the statement added.

“Our investment in infrastructure and technology is to provide sellers with closer access to Amazon’s fulfillment offerings, customers with faster delivery on a wider selection of products and help ancillary businesses such as packaging, transportation and logistics,” Akhil Saxena, a vice president of Amazon India’s customer fulfilment operations said.

The Covid-19 induced lockdown in India, which was imposed in late March, disrupted supply chains across the country, affecting sales at major ecommerce firms.

However, online grocery delivery has seen an increase in competition.

Oil to telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries, in May, announced its ecommerce venture through the launch of its Jio Platform’s JioMart. The business aims to leverage a Kirana (mom and pop) store delivery network, to service last mile delivery in the sector.

Flipkart on Thursday announced the acquisition of parent company Walmart’s local cash-and-carry business, in a move that will likely raise competition with key rival Amazon’s wholesale business.

“In these challenging times and in the post Covid-19 era, e-commerce will be a key driver of India’s growth and job creation. Physical procurement will give way to digital transactions. India is still at the beginning of its e-commerce revolution,” Amitabh Kant, CEO of central government policy think tank Niti Aayog, said in Amazon’s statement.