Amazon scales up India network to speed up deliveries in 15,500 pin codes

Ahead of festive season, firm has been investing in speed with expansion of its one-day, same day and sub-same day network. Customers have access to 200 mn products across categories

Ahead of the festive season, Amazon India said it has invested heavily and significantly expanded its operations network to enable a seamless, faster and reliable shopping experience for customers across the country. In this effort, over the last few months the company has further bolstered its infrastructure across fulfilment centres, delivery stations and fresh centres. It has created more than 110,000 seasonal job opportunities across its operations network. The new seasonal positions will help strengthen the company’s fulfilment and delivery capabilities to meet the anticipated surge in customer demand this festive season.

“Our continued investments in infrastructure across our fulfilment and delivery network will enable us to support our customers even better, with the convenience they need and deliver safely with a seamless, fast and reliable experience during the festive season, and beyond,” said Akhil Saxena, VP, customer fulfilment operations, APAC, MENA & LatAm, Amazon, “We remain committed towards investing in the country and strengthening our reach, and enabling our sellers while creating tens of thousands of direct and indirect work opportunities for local communities.”

Amazon India has expanded its fulfillment network in India this year and has increased its storage capacity by 40 per cent with more than 60 fulfilment centers in 15 states offering 43 million cubic feet to its sellers. This includes the expansion and launch of new exclusive fulfilment centres (FC) for large appliances and furniture categories in cities such as Gurgaon, Patna, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

The storage capacity of this exclusive network has doubled compared to last year and will ensure faster deliveries to close to 15,500 pin codes with more than 80 per cent customers now being able receive their deliveries next day or within 2 days. Amazon offers customers a scheduled delivery and installation experience for large appliances in more than 220 cities in India, with over 96 per cent of customers opting for this service.

In addition, customers can also avail installation services for large appliances in 370 cities and furniture in 200 cities in India. The company has also introduced unified delivery and installation service, which is a market first initiative to provide a hassle-free delivery and installation service experience to its customers at zero cost. Customers can choose scheduled delivery slots at the time of purchase and the product will be installed by a technician at the time of delivery. Ahead of the festive season, the service has expanded to 19 cities for select TV brands.  

Amazon India has also significantly expanded its network designed to provide the specialized infrastructure for Amazon Fresh, its ultra-fast delivery service of daily essentials and groceries. With the expansion, the company has doubled its processing capacity from last year with more than 35 such specialized centres across 14 cities in India. It has also expanded infrastructure across other types of buildings that enable fulfillment of customer orders in this category. With this expansion, the company now has nearly 1 million square feet of dedicated space for the storage and fulfilment of tens of thousands of curated items in the Amazon Fresh selection. These buildings are designed to ensure safe storage of products and processing of customer orders with state-of-the-art equipment and technology.

The company has strengthened its delivery network across the country with the launch of new delivery stations in states like Uttarakhand, Assam, Gujarat and Karnataka. It now has more than 1,850 delivery stations both owned and operated by Amazon as well as Delivery Service Partners to further its direct reach, including in many remote northeastern towns such as Morigaon, Diphu, Birpuria and Karimganj.  It has continued to invest in its flagship ‘I Have Space’ programme and launched in an additional 70 cities, located in states like Sikkim, Tripura and Manipur to name a few. The programme has more than 28,000 neighborhood and kirana partners in close to 420 cities who will deliver customer orders with Amazon this festive season. Under the ‘I Have Space’ programme, Amazon India partners with local store owners to deliver products to customers within a 2-4km radius of their store during their free time. Additionally, the company works with thousands of delivery partners in 65 cities, as part of the Amazon Flex programme providing flexible work opportunities to interested individuals.

The company has continued to invest in speed with expansion of its 1-day, Same Day and Sub-Same Day network. It is a free offering for Prime members. 1-day delivery is also enabled in many remote towns such as Mangaldoi in Assam, Mohanur in Tamil Nadu and Dehra Gopipur in Himachal Pradesh. Amazon has further strengthened its ability to deliver with speed, with a 4X year on year increase in its same-day delivery service and a 3x scale up from last year for its unique sub-same-day delivery offering for all customers. Earlier this year, the company also announced the launch of ‘Amazon Day Delivery’– a more predictable and convenient delivery benefit, giving Prime members the option of choosing a weekly delivery day for the items they purchase throughout the week, to be grouped and delivered together. Through the festive season, Prime members can choose between Prime’s fast, free shipping or Amazon Day Delivery during check out. For easy accessibility and better convenience customers also have the option to pick up their packages from designated ‘pick up points’. Customers can select these points as a pick-up location on the checkout page of their order while shopping on Amazon.in. The company said that its customers have access to over 200 million products across hundreds of categories.