Amazon India Introduces Train Ticket Booking, Partners IRCTC

Ecommerce platform Amazon India has partnered with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), to provide customers facility to book reserved train tickets on Amazon.

Amazon India said it has waived off service and payment gateway transaction charges.

The company noted that with this new offering, customers will be able to check seat and quota availability across all train classes on the Amazon app. They can also pre-load money into their Amazon Pay Balance wallet.

Amazon India’s move to launch such services was reported by Inc42 in November last year.

The ecommerce giant said customers paying through Amazon Pay Balance will get an instant refund in case of cancellations or booking failures.

According to Amazon, the feature is open to Android and iOS app users. Customers can book their tickets by clicking the trains/ travel category under the Amazon Pay tab. From there, they can select their route/travel dates and get a list of all available trains.

In case customers need to cancel a ticket, they can do so under the ‘Your Orders’ section. They can also seek 24×7 help through an Amazon helpline over phone and chat.

Speaking on the launch, Vikas Bansal, Director, Amazon Pay, said, “We are excited to partner with IRCTC and move another step forward in making life easy and convenient for our customers. Last year, we launched flights and bus ticket bookings on Amazon. With the facility to book reserved train tickets on our platform, we are enabling travel across any mode preferred by customers.”

Amazon’s Digital Push

The ecommerce giants’s move is seen as part of Amazon India’s push the use of its digital payments app Amazon Pay.

Last Saturday, Amazon launched a new feature in Amazon Pay, which allowed customers to make credit card payments through internet banking or unified payments interface (UPI).

Other digital platforms Paytm and PhonePe too offer this credit card repayment survive on their platforms. Meanwhile, Kunal Shah’s Cred offers exclusive rewards for paying your credit card bill in a timely manner.

Besides credit card repayment services, several companies have also started offering their co-branded credit cards in collaboration with banks and institutional services. Amazon Pay too offers a co-branded credit card in collaboration with ICICI Bank. The card offers rewards and earnings for every purchase, both on and off Amazon.in, in the form of Amazon Pay balance.

Amazon India Narrows Its Loses

As per documents sourced by business intelligence platform Tofler, Amazon Seller Services, the Indian registered company for the online marketplace has narrowed its loss to INR 5,685 Cr for the financial year ended on March 31, 2019. 

Reportedly, the latest loss is a 9.5% decrease from the loss incurred in the last financial year, which stood at INR 6,287.9 Cr. 

Along with the loss incurred by its other Indian entities, the US-based ecommerce giant’s losses in India stood at over INR 7000 Cr in FY 18-19. 

Launched in 2017, Amazon Pay India, which is the digital payments arm of the ecommerce company, registered a manifold increase in its losses. The payments service has widened its losses to INR 1,160.8 Cr in FY19 from INR 334.20 Cr. 

However, reports also highlighted that Amazon Pay India doubled its revenues for FY 18-19 to INR 834.5 Cr from the previous financial year. 

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