Amazon India eyes more than 50 fulfilment centres in 13 states by year end with storage space of 20 mn cubic feet

Bengaluru: E-commerce giant Amazon India will end 2018 with more than 50 fulfilment centres in 13 states across the country with a combined storage space of close to 20 million cubic feet, a senior company executive said Tuesday. Amazon’s largest fulfilment centre in Karnataka was opened near Attibele on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, close to Bengaluru Tuesday, with a view to enhancing customer experience ahead of the festive season. The centre is one of the five announced for 2018, company Vice President (Customer Fulfilment) Akhil Saxena told reporters. Saxena said the facility would hire 2,000 contractual positions over the next year. “There are several hundred people working outside the facility as delivery associates,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_4501191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Reuters[/caption] Spread over around 350,000 square feet with close to two million cubic feet of storage space, the centre would enable faster delivery to customers in the region, he said. With this infrastructure, Amazon has increased its storage capacity by more than one and half times since last year in Karnataka. The company now has close to 3.5 million cubic feet of storage space in the state. “The fulfilment centres are present in 13 states and Amazon has 15 ‘Prime Now’ nodes,” he added. Saxena said there are four such centres in Karnataka and more than 200 Amazon Logistics Stations, besides close to 25 logistics core stations. Besides this, there are 350 Service Partner nodes in 320 cities across the country and more than 60 in Karnataka alone. Saxena said there are close to 17,500 ‘I Have Space’ stores in 225 cities and close to 2,000 in Karnataka, which would enable sellers to use the local infrastructure, save capital and help them grow. He also said the centre at Attibele would cater to customer demand for products in categories such as Smartphones, Consumer Electronics, Appliances, Fashion and Consumables (FMCG). Saxena said millions of products are currently available for immediate shipping through Amazon’s network of such centres in India. “This selection will only increase with the expanding FC footprint and benefit sellers and customers alike,” he said. Saxena said the company’s customers and the Amazon mobile shopping app have access to over 170 million products across hundreds of categories. It would also provide support to the local economy by enabling the growth of ancillary businesses such as packaging, transportation, logistics, and hospitality across the state, he said.