Amazon India Launches Sixth Fulfilment Centre In Mumbai

Amazon India has launched its sixth Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Mumbai. With this new launch, Amazon India now has eight FCs in Maharashtra, with close to 2.5 Mn cubic feet of storage space.

The new Fulfilment Centre is spread over nearly 90,000 sq. ft. with over 300,000 cubic feet of storage space. It is situated in Bhiwandi.

In May 2017, Amazon India announced plans to double its storage capacity, a move that claims to provide employment opportunities to about 5,000 people. This is one of the seven recently announced fulfilment centres for this year.

Commenting on the launch, Akhil Saxena, Vice President, India Customer Fulfilment, Amazon India, said “In line with our vision to transform the way India buys and sells, we have been consistently investing in enhancing our capabilities to provide superior experience to both – buyers and sellers. With the launch of our sixth Fulfilment Centre in Mumbai and eighth in Maharashtra, we strongly believe that we will be able to better serve our customers and also support our Prime promise of one-day & two-day delivery. Furthermore, for our sellers, the new FC will enable thousands of small & medium businesses to 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 we fulfil.”

Talking about the impact on the ecosystem, he further added that the Fulfilment Centre will provide local SMEs a platform to sell their products. He also said that the selection offered from Mumbai sellers for immediate delivery has grown 120% this year as compared to last year.

The Fulfilment Centre is also expected to create employment opportunities for the youth in the space of ancillary businesses such as packaging, transportation, logistics, and hospitality across the state.                                                                                       

In April 2017, Amazon India invested in nine dedicated Fulfilment Centres and 33 Delivery Stations exclusively for furniture and large appliances. As per a company statement, the new FCs opened in nine states – Karnataka, Haryana, Telangana, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, and Maharashtra – will help to cater to the growing demand for large appliances and furniture across the country. This year the company is planning to establish about 41 operational Fulfilment Centres in 13 states across the country with a combined storage space of close to 13 Mn cubic ft.

Despite incurring multimillion dollar losses, Amazon is bullish about its expansion in India and shows no plans to back down. In February 2017, Amazon Development Center announced the launch of two new customer service facilities, in Noida and Coimbatore, respectively. In April 2017, it was also reported that Amazon had secured a licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate a prepaid payment instrument (PPI). This came at a time when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the ecommerce giant’s Indian arm Amazon India is India’s most popular marketplace, indicating the company’s intention to keep fuelling Indian investment.