Global online retail giant Amazon.com has finally arrived in India and has announced today launch of its online e-commerce site Amazon.in. This is Amazon’s tenth marketplace launch and Amazon.in will be operated by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited, an affiliate of Amazon.com, Inc.
To start with, customers in India will be able to purchase books, movies & TV shows video products. Amazon.in has plans to introduce additional categories including mobile phones, cameras and other products in the coming weeks. Amazon.in Book store features over 7 million print books across 200 plus categories including fiction, management, children’s books and academic publications. Amazon.in customers can search and preview the text inside more than 1.3 million books through its Search inside feature, offering customers an entirely new way to find and discover the books they want. This coupled with the author and customer reviews sourced from Amazon.com and personalized recommendations helps customers find the perfect book.
According to Amazon, their Movies & TV shows store features a collection of over 12,000 titles in English and Hindi across DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Video CD formats. Customers can order from a full range of documentaries, kids’ edutainment, music videos, TV serials, and films across several genres including action, romance, comedy, horror, drama, and musicals.
To mark the launch, Amazon.in has a limited period promotion wherein all customers will enjoy Free delivery on orders fulfilled by Amazon. Otherwise, free delivery is only valid if the order is worth Rs. 499 or more and is fulfilled by Amazon, else Rs.49 as levied as shipping charge.
Amazon has also introducing two new programmes, ‘Sell on Amazon’ and ‘Fulfilment by Amazon’, for Indian sellers. This offer of Amazon will give Indian sellers a very good platform to sell their products and listing on Amazon.in is free. In celebration of the launch of Amazon.in, sellers can enjoy a promotional referral fee and free monthly subscription for the first year.
Selling on Amazon provides businesses of all sizes a compelling sales channel with a nationwide reach. Sellers can list an unlimited number of products and benefit from Amazon.com’s investment in technology and innovation, convenient shopping experience, and a secure payment infrastructure backed by Amazon’s comprehensive A-to-Z guarantee. Additionally, sellers will have access to Amazon’s proven seller coaching tools and a suite of integrated services that can help sellers easily grow their business online.
Amazon.com has created one of the most advanced fulfillment networks in the world and sellers in India can benefit from Amazon’s expertise in fulfillment, reliable nationwide delivery and customer service. When using FBA, sellers across India can send their products to Amazon’s fulfillment center located on the outskirts of Mumbai. Once an order is placed, Amazon packs and ships the order to the customer without the sellers having to do anything. Orders fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Free Delivery promotions and Cash on Delivery, and Amazon provides customer service and returns management, enabling sellers to focus on their core business.
In Feb 2012, Amazon made its foray into the Indian market with the launch of Junglee.com, enabling retailers in India to advertise their products for free to millions of Indian shoppers and drive targeted traffic to their stores. With the introduction of ‘Selling on Amazon’ and ‘Fulfillment by Amazon’ sellers now have access to unlimited and free ‘virtual shelf space’ and a scalable, pay-as-you-go fulfillment and customer service offerings. Both programs have successfully been used by more than two million sellers globally to sell to over 200 million customers worldwide and boost their sales.
“Our vision is to become a trusted and meaningful sales channel for retailers of all sizes across India, enabling them to succeed and efficiently grow their business online,” said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India. “With Fulfillment by Amazon, we will do the heavy lifting for the sellers so that they can focus on core business functions like sourcing and pricing their products.”
Once Amazon.in will not only compete with Indian online shopping services such as Flipkart, HomeShop18 and Snapdeal but will also have to take on eBay.in, that has same business model, and is quite popular in India.
