Ahead of festivals, Amazon invests in 6 new fulfillment centres

E-commerce major Amazon has invested in six new Fulfillment Centres (FCs) to meet the growing requirements of its fast-increasing seller base in India, especially during the festivals.

The new FCs, to be set up in Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai, will bolster the company's presence in India ahead of the festive season, the company said in a statement today. With the launch of these new FCs, Amazon has a total area of 2.5 million sqft, with a one-and-a-half times growth in storage capacity, at 7.5 million cubic feet.

An Amazon fulfillment centre serves as a modern, secure facility equipped with highly automated pick, pack and ship processes to facilitate safe and timely processing of orders. The company says it will keep investing in fulfillment and logistics capability to empower sellers.

It stands testament to our larger commitment of making deep investments in the country and in turn creating opportunities for employment, growth and revenue generation for the government, said Akhil Saxena, Vice-President, India Customer Fulfilment, Amazon India, in a statement.

The FCs will allow Amazon.in to offer its Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service to several thousand more small and medium businesses. Over 80 percent of the sellers on Amazon.in currently use its fulfilment services, Amazon said. More than 1.3 million products are available for immediate shipping through the network of Amazon's FCs in the country.

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The FCs are present in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal. From a distribution strategy perspective, Amazon started its two fulfillment centres in Seattle and Delaware in 1997. In 2001, it expanded it's fulfillment centres in Europe . From there on, in the journey of creating an impact to increase their customer service Amazon has been involving itself by developing more and more fulfillment centres across the globe. In India specifically, it has 10 fulfillment centres and about four delivery stations.