A week back Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos declared that “It’s still day 1 for ecommerce in India, and I assure you that we’ll keep investing in technology and infrastructure.” True to his word, the ecommerce giant’s India unit is making provisions to increase its warehouse capacity.
Amazon India is going to build 14 new fulfilment centres (FC) in 2017. Work on 7 FCs has already started in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. According to Amazon, these new warehouses specially designed to store large appliances & furniture would be ready by June end.
Amazon India’s VP- India Customer Fulfilment Akhil Saxena exulted,
“We are excited to announce our plans for 2017 which will double our storage capacity to support this exponential growth of Amazon.in. We recently announced seven FCs dedicated to large appliances and furniture and with this capacity doubling, we will now see 41 FCs in India for 2017.”
While Flipkart and Snapdeal have been in the news for downsizing its staff in an effort to reduce cash-burn and expenses, Amazon is all set to increase job opportunities in India.
“These 41 FCs will bring us closer to our customers and enable thousands of small and medium businesses to fulfil their orders in a cost-efficient manner. With close to 5,000 new jobs created by these 14 new FCs, we continue to remain committed to investing in infrastructure and technology in India,” Saxena said.
Sellers from three states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh would particularly benefit from these new FCs. They would get access to Amazon’s fulfilment services and increase their revenue by expanding deliverable pincodes. In addition, warehouse spaces in Delhi and Ahmedabad would be increased too.
In 2017, Amazon’s plan is to double its storage capacity. And its rival Flipkart’s aim is to double large appliances’ sales volume.
“In the next three months, we hope to see exponential or hockey-stick curve kind of growth in this business. We are aiming to capture 20% market share by March 2018—right now we are at 6-7% and growing,” Flipkart’s head of large appliances Sandeep Karwa disclosed.
Flipkart launched this category in April 2014. The ecommerce leader will re-launch this category during 2017’s flagship Big Billion Day sales event, which is held every year around Diwali.
The etailer expects to double the sales by selling exclusive products/brands and fine-tuning the delivery process.
Karwa said,
“The top brands have started to do exclusive products with us that are geared towards the e-commerce audience—if we look at Samsung, Panasonic, etc. Except for one or two brands, almost every large brand has a derivative with Flipkart right now. For instance, there are 2-3 TVs from Samsung which are exclusive with Flipkart right now, similarly with Panasonic and other brands. The combination of derivative products and exclusives contributes about 50-60% right now of our revenues.”
Indian ecommerce industry’s top two players Amazon and Flipkart, both are focusing on large appliances and furniture category. Looks like 2017 would be the year of big ticket items.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
Leave a Comment
