Amazon India beefs up warehousing capacity in Tamil Nadu as part of country-wide expansion exercise

Ahead of the upcoming festive sales in October, a period when ecommerce companies register record high sales in India, Amazon, on Tuesday, added another ‘specialized’ fulfillment centre in Tamil Nadu, along with the expansion of an existing centre. The addition will support over 43,000 sellers in the southern state.

The expansion is a part of Amazon India’s plans to add 10 new fulfilment centres, and expand seven existing sites across India, which it disclosed in July.

The new fulfillment centers, designed for the goods category of large appliances and furniture category, have been located across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad.

Amazon India has also recently added tens of thousands of delivery partners and about 200 delivery stations to its network, to meet the expected customer demand for the festive season surrounding October. It currently has a delivery network of about 250 own-operated and over 1,500 partner-operated delivery stations in India, run by more than 280 entrepreneurs.

“This year, more than 100,000 seasonal associates will join us to fulfil customer promises. We remain committed to creating job opportunities across the country, especially at a time when the pandemic has posed challenges in earning livelihood for many” Akhil Saxena, vice president of APAC, MENA and LATAM customer fulfilment operations at Amazon India said in a statement on Wednesday.

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In the 2019 festive season sales that commenced on September 26 and ended on October 4, rivals Flipkart and Amazon had accounted for over 90% of $3 billion goods sold.

Separately, Amazon Seller Services received Rs 1,125 crore ($152.4 million as per current exchange rates) from its parent entity, according to multiple media reports citing data from company research firm Tofler.

Amazon Seller Services (ASS) is the Indian marketplace unit that helps sellers within the country to sell their products online, locally and internationally. 

The Indian unit’s parent entity, Amazon Corporate Holdings, is based in Singapore.

The internal infusion follows a $308 million investment that ASS received from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and Mauritius-based Amazon.com in July.