Amazon India’s same-day deliveries for its Prime members have doubled year-on-year and the e-commerce major plans to continue doubling down on it.
“We have been able to achieve this because of how we have strengthened our delivery network. That is something we will continue doubling down. We believe that a large selection delivered at speed is what resonates with our customers,” Abhinav Agarwal – director, head of Amazon Prime India, told Fe in an interaction.
Talking about how Amazon India is looking at the booming quick commerce segment, Agarwal said, “Our philosophy around speed on delivery is quite simple, something we have learned over a decade, and what we know is customers want a wide range of selection delivered reliably fast, and that’s what we try to do every day.”
Amazon India delivers 100% serviceable pin codes, with customers across more than 97% pin codes now eligible to receive their deliveries within two days of placing an order.
At present, Amazon Prime members get free same-day delivery on more than 1 million items and next-day delivery on more than 4 million items. In addition to that, they get access to exclusive deals, early access to shopping events, exclusive access to shopping event Prime Day, access to movies and TV shows on Prime Video, unlimited 5% cash back on all purchases using co-branded ICICI credit cards, among others.
“The products we deliver range from home improvement to groceries to toys to beauty to luggage. We really believe that when this kind of shipping service, which is wide, fast speed and across a wide selection, is combined with Amazon’s trustworthy shopping experience, which is our verified reviews, and hassle-free returns, it is a very all-rounded and compelling customer proposition,” he said.
The e-commerce giant offers three membership plans, including Prime Annual at ₹1,499 for one year, Prime Lite at ₹799 for one year and Prime Shopping Edition at ₹399 for one year.
Amazon India will continue to invest in strengthening same-day and sub-same-day capabilities, he added. Talking about how Amazon has been able to achieve the massive delivery network and operations, he said, “There are two parts to it. One is the fulfilment network that we have built over the last decade in India. Within that, there are two sorts of layers. One is fulfilment centres across locations with large storage capacities. And then we have last-mile delivery stations. So this makes the backbone. This is how you actually take a product from a seller and get it in customer’s hands”.
Amazon’s fulfilment centres provide storage space to over 1.4 million sellers across 15 states. It has sortation centres across 19 states, with over 1,950 delivery stations operated by Amazon and local entrepreneurs, and 28,000 third-party delivery partners.
Amazon India has also been seeing an uptick in Prime membership from Tier II and Tier III cities. During the Amazon Great India Festival 2023, two out of three Prime members who shopped were from these pin codes. “We see a large base of customers in those cities. If you look at the benefits that we offer, be it shopping, video or music, they appeal to a wide range of audiences across Tier I, II, III and beyond. So, we see Prime members signing from all PIN codes in India. The engagement is strong,” he said.