Amazon India gears up for aggressive competition with Flipkart, launches global store

E-commerce major Amazon recently launched a global store, giving customers in India access to over four million products from international brands and to help Amazon compete more aggressively against domestic rival Flipkart in the booming Indian e-commerce market. Amazon India VP and Country Head Amit Agarwal told PTI,

Enhancing shopping experience for customers is one of the key pillars for us. With the global store, customers in India will now have direct access to thousands of international brands and a starting selection of over four million global products.

At present, a host of products available on Amazon US would be available in India; later on more categories and countries from where products can be bought will be added, he said.

Customers could order items from Amazons US portal to India earlier as well but they would have to pay in dollars. With this launch, Amazon.in will become the single largest online destination for buying both local and global products in India, he said.

Amazon will now have a dedicated page showcasing all eligible products that it will ship to India under the global store. It will make products across categories like books, apparel, shoes, office supplies, home, kitchen, sports as well as niche categories like fishing equipment and bakeware.

India is the third market after China and Mexico to get the global store.

They will also have access to unique brands like Nixon (watches), Jessica Simpson (shoes), Zumba (sports) and Gaiam (sports) etc that not available in India, he said.

Customers will be able to see prices in local currency inclusive of import fee deposits and get delivery in 2-12 days.

Prices shown to customers will include product price, import fees deposit and shipping fees (based on delivery option selected) in Indian rupees for ease of purchase, he said.

India Post, DHL and Aramex will be the third-party logistics providers for products ordered from Amazon Global Store. Customers will also be able to return most unused items within 30 days of delivery for full or partial refund based on the reason for return. Like its competitors Flipkart and Snapdeal, the Jeff Bezos-led firm has been aggressively expanding the range of products available on its platform to woo customers.

Also read : Amazon will not beat Flipkart in e-commerce till 2019: study

A report by Kotak Institutional Equities said the Indian e-tailing market could reach $28 billion by 2019-20, registering a compounded annual growth rate of 45 percent.