Amazon’s Premium Service ‘Amazon Prime’ Lands In Indian Market; Prime Video Coming Soon

Amazon has launched Amazon Prime membership program in India. With Prime, customers in over 100 cities can avail unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery on eligible products.

Amit Agarwal, Vice-President & Country Head, Amazon India said, “With Prime, guaranteed one-day delivery becomes an everyday experience instead of an occasional indulgence, and with no minimum purchases, it provides unlimited convenience all year long.”

Amazon is also offering a 60 day free trial period to customers who sign up early. While non-members will continue to bear the usual delivery charges. Prime members can choose same day, morning or scheduled delivery at a discounted fee of INR 50 per order with no minimum purchase. The membership is offered at an introductory annual subscription fee of INR 499.

Prime products will be delivered through the Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA) channel, which is the company’s standard product fulfilment service. The products sent by sellers to the Amazon Fulfilment Centres are packed and shipped to the designated addresses.

Amazon has also revamped its on-site and app to enable easy discovery of Prime products. A “Prime” badge will help to indicate when a product will be delivered to the customer’s address.

The company, for now, is not launching content service which includes Amazon Video and Amazon Music in India. Though it will be launching video streaming service soon. Amazon Prime Video includes shows such as Mr. Robot and The Man In The High Castle. Earlier, it was reported that Amazon will be investing about $300 Mn for the original Prime video content in India.

Greg Greeley, Vice-President Worldwide Prime, Amazon said, “Since its inception in every country, Prime continues to evolve as we add millions of additional items that can be delivered incredibly fast and free. We have also introduced unique digital benefits like Prime Video featuring Amazon Original Series and Movies – you’ll be hearing more about that in the coming months.”

Earlier this month, Amazon India inaugurated its largest Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Sonipat near New Delhi. The centre is spread over 200,000 square feet with more than 800,000 cubic feet of storage space. Prior to this in February, it also launched a unique initiative to help small & medium businesses (SMBs) to sell on its platform through Amazon Tatkal.