As competition is expected to hot up, e-commerce marketplace Amazon India is beefing up its logistics and warehousing capacities as well as offerings in run-up to its Prime Day event.
Amazon on Wednesday opened its 1,40,000 square feet fulfilment centre near Kolkata, its third and the biggest in the region.
Amazon would add five such fulfilment centres – warehouses where stuffs are stored, sorted and transported to destinations – by end of this year. It would have 67 warehouses across 13 states with a combined storage space of 20 million cubic feet.
Beyond these large warehouses, Amazon is creating last-mile connectivity to reach customers from Leh to Kohima.
"We are investing in transportation logistics as well as other logistical capacities. About 350 local entrepreneurs, from retired servicemen to housewives, have been roped in who would be delivering packages within their respective areas while 17,500 shops across 225 cities have been tied up under 'I have space' programme who would work for us," Akhil Saxena, VP, customer fulfilment of Amazon India, told DNA Money.
"As we add more fulfilment centres, our ability to provide one or two day deliveries to our Prime members for more number of products would rise," he said.
Amazon is now preparing for the big Prime Day sale, spread over 36 hours beginning July 16.
The marketplace currently has 3.4 lakh sellers across the country.
While effort are being made to reach out to more number of buyers through expansion of logistical capabilities and onboarding more sellers, Amazon is also working on improving buyers' experience.
To give buyers a better feel of the products they are ordering, Amazon has developed a virtual marketplace on Oculus to be made available to interested buyers at pop-up stores in major cities.
"It's always a challenge for every e-commerce player how to give better 'touch and feel' experience to buyers. For this we have created a virtual room where customers can walk in and check how does a product like a piece of garment looks on a virtual model giving a better feel of the texture and appearance when it is actually worn," Akshay Sahi, head of Prime, said.
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