Despite having five million cubic feet of warehousing capacity, Amazon India is rolling out the concept of “seller flex” for faster replenishment and shipping of goods. Amazon’s India-specific solutions to engage with the seller community has seen 250 per cent increase in the number of vendors last year.
Seller flex is currently being piloted in the premises of 11 vendors in six states. If a vendor has his own warehousing facility, Amazon alters part of it as per its standards and as and when orders come, the products are packed and shipped directly from the vendors place to the customer.
“In this model, the replenishment happens faster as the vendor has better control over the inventory. The shipping time too can be brought down. If the products are shipped to our fulfillment centre, packed and then shipped, there can be an additional time lag of up to 10 days,” said Gopal Pillai, director, seller services, Amazon India.
Amazon will be coming up with four more seller flex centres before Diwali. Apart from seller flex, Amazon follows two models for warehousing and shipping. It has large fulfillment centres which are used by sellers to stock their inventory. When the orders arrive, products are shipped from these FCs to the customer. Amazon has 21 FCs in 10 states with a cumulative capacity of five million cubic feet. Of this 10 warehouses were added last year.
Amazon also offers Easy Ship service in which the company picks up the packed orders from the sellers and takes care of the logistics. Launched in June 2013 with 100 sellers, Amazon India now has one lakh of them. In September, Amazon India saw 24,000 sellers registering with it, the highest monthly registration since its inception, said Pillai.
“These are models invented specifically for the Indian market and some of them, including ‘easy ship’ are now being launched in other markets like the US,” added Pillai.
Amazon has trained e-commerce specialists to educate the sellers. There are people under Service Provider Network to help the vendors with cataloging, photo shoots and product description.
“Amazon Selling Coach is a mobile app that pops up notification on orders and delivery, provides recommendation on top selling products and competitive prices. Around 35,000 sellers are using this app. Amazon also has 5,000 sellers who are undertaking international orders and with the help of Fulfilment Centres in the US and UK, they are able to cater to cross-border orders,” he said.
Sangeethag
@mydigitalfc.com
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