How amazon success in india
Amazon’s Journey in India
These challenges required Amazon to innovate its business model to operate in India. And Amazon did exactly that. It chalked out a strategy, customized its business model, and localized its operations to succeed in India.
Because of the FDI restrictions mentioned above, Amazon started its operations as an online marketplace that connected sellers and buyers in India.
Custom domain name for India
The first step was to launch a website in 2013 with a custom domain name, www.amazon.in, for India. This was not a big deal, but convincing retailers to sell their products on Amazon Marketplace was definitely a challenge.
Making loans available to sellers
In the US, Amazon Lending provides business financing to help small and medium-sized businesses. A similar model could not function in India as Amazon did not have a banking license. Instead, Amazon set up a lending program that consists of third-party lenders and enables sellers to get loans at better than market rates.
Shipment and Delivery Solutions for India
Amazon uses a centralized shipping platform called “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA). Under this, the sellers send their goods to Amazon warehouses (known as fulfillment centers) and pay a fee to store, pack and ship their products.
Amazon also established its fulfillment centers in India and it has about 21 warehouses across the country. But, it also went a step ahead to help sellers with shipment and delivery in a diverse and complex country like India. For this, Amazon launched two India-centric programs called ‘Easy Ship’ and ‘Seller Flex’ in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Under Seller Flex, Amazon provides training to sellers to help bring their warehousing practices to the level acceptable to Amazon. It provides technical support, tools and processes for 50 such warehouses owned and operated by its sellers. The vendors designate a section of their own warehouses for products to be sold on Amazon India, and then Amazon coordinates delivery logistics.
