MUMBAI: Amazon.in today announced the launch an urban Fulfilment Centre (FC) located at Virugambakkam in Chennai. Offering a storage area of close to 100,000 cubic feet, the FC is spread over an area of close to 50,000 square feet in the heart of Chennai. The urban FC model will further enable Amazon.in to support deliveries under its recently launched Prime program and offer faster delivery to a wider set of customers during the upcoming festive season. With this launch, Amazon.in has 23 operational Fulfilment Centres in 10 states across the country with a combined storage space of more than 6 million cubic feet. This is the 2 of the 6 FCs planned in readiness for the festive season.

Amazon.in’s new Fulfilment Centre has been set up in a Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) building which used to be the erstwhile ‘Golden Studios’. The building has been renovated extensively, transforming it into an Amazon Fulfilment Centre. Apart from enabling faster delivery and creating direct employment, this FC will fuel the growth of ancillary businesses such as packaging, transportation, logistics, and hospitality across the state.

Talking about its benefits, Amazon India VP customer fulfilment Akhil Saxena said, “Since the start, we have been relentlessly focusing on strengthening our logistics & delivery infrastructure to ensure faster delivery to shoppers across the country. With this urban FC in the heart of Chennai, we are moving closer to our customers. This will not only support our Prime promise of one-day & two-day delivery but will also allow us to efficiently serve customers in the upcoming festive season. A lot more customers will now be able to opt for Cash on Delivery, Guaranteed Next-Day, Same Day, Release Day, Morning delivery and Sunday delivery on Amazon.in.”

Local sellers, weavers, craftsmen & artisans involved in traditional textiles & local handicrafts too would be able to reach a wider set of customers and provide a delightful customer experience through Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) offered via the FC. When using FBA, sellers across India send their products to Amazon’s FCs and once an order is placed, Amazon picks, packs and ships the order to the customer, provides customer service and manages returns on behalf of the sellers. Orders fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Cash on Delivery, Guaranteed Next-Day, Same Day, Release Day, Morning delivery and Sunday delivery. Sellers save money by replacing their upfront capital expense with low variable cost and pay only for the storage space they use and the orders that Amazon fulfils. Sellers always have the flexibility to choose the number of products they want to have fulfilled by Amazon and scale according to their business requirements.

Since its launch in June 2013, Amazon.in has been working extensively to launch services that meet different business requirements of sellers and help them grow their business profitably online. Over the past three years, Amazon.in has introduced the most comprehensive suite of offerings for sellers to sell online in India. From running an extensive education and skilling program for SMEs called Seller University, offering Fulfilment By Amazon (a pay-as-you-go fulfilment service wherein Amazon.in packs, ships and delivers products to customers, manages returns and does customer service on behalf of the sellers), innovating Easy Ship (an assisted shipping service that makes it easy for sellers to ship products across India), launching Seller Flex(bringing Amazon’s flagship FBA experience to the seller’s doorstep by implementing the FBA technology at sellers’ warehouses), introducing Amazon Tatkal (a service-on-wheels to help SMBs get online within 60 minutes), to building the largest storage capacity in ecommerce in India for sellers to the tune of 7.5 million cubic feet, Amazon.in has been helping sellers reach millions of customers across the country. Amazon launched its Global Selling Program for sellers in India in May last year and today over 12,000 sellers from India are selling their ‘Make in India’ products on Amazon’s nine global marketplaces to over millions of active worldwide customers. The company also launched its most loved offering Prime to Indian shoppers last week. With Prime, Indian customers in over 100 cities can enjoy unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery on lakhs of eligible products from India’s largest online shopping selection.

All consumers on www.amazon.in and the Amazon mobile shopping app have an easy and convenient access to over 65 million products across hundreds of categories. They benefit from a safe and secure ordering experience, convenient electronic payments, Cash on Delivery, Amazon’s 24x7 customer service support, and a globally recognized and comprehensive 100% purchase protection provided by Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee.