Amazon is investing in six new fulfilment centres in India ahead of the country’s festive season.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) offers services to help businesses selling on the e-commerce platform expand. Businesses using FBA pay to have Amazon house their inventory, deliver orders placed through the site and handle returns and customer services.
In India the period from late August to November is often known as festive season because a disproportionate number of annual celebrations happen during this time.
Amazon’s said it is expanding to “meet the growing needs of its fast-growing seller base”, as more Indian companies opt into its FBA service. It did not specify how much it would be investing.
The cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai will all be recipients of this new investment.
“Fulfilment centres fulfil important needs of small and medium enterprises seeking markets and customers located all over India and lacking resources to create their captive distribution networks,” said Akhil Saxena, vice president of India Customer Fulfilment at Amazon India.
“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.”
Amazon already boasts the “largest storage space for an e-commerce company in India,” and already has fulfilment centres in 10 of the country’s states. It claims to have more than 8,000 sellers on its Indian marketplace platform and a catalogue of 55m products for sale.
