Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery Shaping Up In India

Come November, it will literally be raining gold in prizes for some Indian consumers.

The prizes are for consumers shopping through Amazon for Diwali, a widely celebrated Indian festival that attracts huge commerce opportunities for retailers. To brace for it, Amazon has lined up 1 million products to be available for next-day delivery over a five-day sale period.

Amazon’s move to offer over two pounds of gold in prizes every day and provide fast delivery comes as it locks horns with Indian eCommerce giant Flipkart, which just like Amazon and its five-day “Great Indian Festive Sale” has simultaneously launched its own five-day sale starting yesterday (Oct. 13).

“It would be great deals for customers, ensuring that sellers have a blockbuster time, ensuring that we provide a great experience. We believe that this will be the greatest sale India has ever seen,” said Amit Agarwal, head of Amazon India.

“Thousands of deals will be available every hour,” he added. “We believe that millions of new customers are going to come. Based on our experience from the last two sales, more than 60 percent of our customers come from Tier II and Tier III cities.”

To support its next-day delivery program, Amazon has reportedly partnered with about 2,000 small businesses, travel agencies and pharmacies in 50 cities to act as pick-up points and has partnered with non-governmental organizations to provide delivery services.

The efforts to boost its delivery network are part of Amazon’s larger initiative to take a bite out of the fast-growing eCommerce market in India, which is dominated by several other Indian online retailers such as Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra and Snapdeal.

According to The Economic Times of India, Amazon powers its eCommerce business in India through a network of 21 warehouses spread out in 10 states across the country that have a storage capacity of 5 million cubic feet.

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