Amazon promises shoppers faster deliveries this festival season

Online shopping giant Amazon is all out to wow Indian shoppers with speedy, faster product deliveries during the ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale next month.

The e-commerce company will not only deliver but also install large appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, washing machines within 48 hours in the top 10 cities this year, a top executive told BusinessLine.

To ensure this, the e-tailer has ramped up its delivery network including first-mile, middle-mile, last-mile with investments in technology to support faster movement of consumer shipments.

In addition to over 50 fulfilment centres (FCs) with a storage capacity of 20 million cubic feet across 13 States where sellers across India using Fulfilment By Amazon, send their products to be picked, packed and shipped to the customer; the e-tailer has built a network of 30 sort centres across 17 States with a processing area of 1 million sq ft.

“Sort centres receive packages from FCs, identifies whether the shipment has to be forwarded to customer or if its a return, then allocates it to different cities, keeps it ready to be loaded into trucks, which transports it to our network of 150 Amazon delivery stations plus 60 delivery stations which exclusively manage the deliveries of large appliances and furniture” said Akhil Saxena, Vice-President, Customer Fulfilment, Amazon India.

Amazon is using the latest automated sorting technology to ensure that shipments are quickly processed and ensures quick turnaround times for trucks that come to pick up shipments. The e-tailer has expanded its Line Haul network operated by Amazon transportation to connect every FC to cities where it operates delivery stations/service partners through a network of sort centres with over 1,500 dedicated trucks which run daily and operate across 400 unique routes to 500 plus cities; and has expanded its air network capacity 1.5X times over last season to cater to free one-day, two-day deliveries for Prime members.

Service provider network

The e-tailer has doubled its last-mile Service Partner Network wherein over 200 entrepreneurs across the country have partnered with Amazon to provide local distribution services, with over 700 stations in 500 cities including locations like Kesinga, Almora, Gudivada etc. Under the ‘I Have Space’ programme, Amazon India has expanded to 20,000 retail stores who do last-mile delivery for Amazon in over 350 cities. These stores are present in Amritsar, Bharuch, Warangal, Nashik, Kota, Dhanbad, Neyveli, Tenali etc.

“We took our core delivery app and customised it for Indian requirements of cash on delivery, to pick up returns and handle exchanges, load cash at customer doorstep, all India first initiatives. We use AI and ML to help customers type out correct addresses when ordering. Transport fleets have cameras, motion sensors, internal GPS-enabled locks that open only at the destination to ensure safety of shipments,” added Saxena.