Amazon India bulks up on large appliances

May set up more warehouses to accommodate mounting orders

Amazon India is on a war footing to expand its large appliances base that has seen a 400 per cent growth in the past one year. The online marketplace hopes it would be among the top four verticals in the near future. 

Amazon India has already commissioned 12 dedicated fulfillment centres across nine states in order to cater to the spurt in sales of bulky products, which includes air-conditioners, televisions and refrigerators, among others. However, senior executives claim that due to the high demand throughout the year, they are now running out of space.

“When we were setting up the centres, we felt that we needed to do the large appliances business in a differentiated manner. We are ambitious, but this 400 per cent growth surprised us as well. In the facilities that we have created, we have run out of space in hardly 12 months of full operation. All of this started kicking in around the end of the third quarter last year,” said Manish Tiwary, vice-president, category management, Amazon India.

Tiwary hinted that the company was actively looking at setting up more fulfillment centres for big appliances. “We have only big appliances fulfillment centres. At present, the number stands at 12. It is a huge investment and a parallel network that is running alongside the normal fulfillment centres. We are running out of space, I am sure we will ramp up space eventually,” he said.

Amazon is also providing after-sales services either on its own or in collaboration with the appliances brand. The company has launched installation services to provide its customers a hassle-free experience across 13 cities. “In some parts of the country, we still cannot offer our full services. We want our services to be glitch free. To time deliveries perfectly, we would keep on expanding the footprint. The primary responsibility of after-sales services is Amazon’s and a bulk of it is handled by brands as well. Also, during peak seasons, if the brand promise is wavering, we will step in. We are ramping up quickly. We bring in 1,000-plus products on a daily basis. It is a continuous process,” Tiwary said. 

The online marketplace giant caters to all major brands, including Samsung, Whirlpool, Godrej, Bosch, IFB, Carrier, Hitachi and Haier, among others, and is constantly increasing its selection numbers. It has a selection of over 5,000 large appliances on its platform.