Amazon adds 20 fulfilment centres, 150 delivery stations before festive season

Amazon has announced the biggest expansion of its operations network yet ahead of the festive season. The company is launching 20 new fulfilment centres, 6 new sort centres and 150 new last-mile delivery stations in India. The expansion will increase Amazon's total storage capacity by 50 percent to 64 million cubic feet, equivalent to more than 720 Olympic-size swimming pools. The new centres will be operated and managed by major logistics industry partners.

This time the company has focused more on smaller cities beyond the metros. All the new sort centres and seven of the new fulfilment centres are being set up in non-metro cities, including Amazon's first fulfilment centres in Raipur, Ranchi and Varanasi. This will further strengthen Amazon's network in tier-2 and tier-3 cities across the country. With new sort centres coming up in Chikkaballapur, Hassan, Meerut, Ramanagara, Raipur and Varanasi, the total sortation area will grow 25 percent from 2.4 million square feet to 3 million square feet.

The company has added 150 new last-mile delivery stations across 118 cities, including Asansol, Bhatinda, Bikaner, Coimbatore, Doda, Etawah, Gaya, Hosur, Jaunpur, Junagadh, Madurai, Nellore, Puri, Siliguri, Solapur, Tiruvannamalai, Tumkur, Udhampur and West Garo Hills, extending Amazon's reach further into smaller towns and cities. Of these, 12 cities - Bhojpur, Bokajan, Jalaun, Jehanabad, Namsai, Purulia, Ri-Bhoi, Senapati, Sivasagar, Udalguri, Ukhrul and Wokha - are getting an Amazon last-mile delivery station for the first time. This continued investment in the network has helped same-day delivery reach more than 30 percent more cities over the past year, giving customers across the country faster and more reliable deliveries.

The expansion is part of an investment of more than Rs 2,800 crore recently announced to further strengthen Amazon's network in India. It will bring sellers' products closer to customers and extend Amazon's last-mile reach to more areas, enabling faster and more reliable deliveries to meet growing demand.

Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Amazon's India, APAC, Middle East, Turkiye and Africa Operations, said, "At Amazon, our focus has always been on getting closer to customers and sellers so that we can offer them faster and reliable service. As we serve customers across the country, we have continued to invest in building India's largest, safest, fastest and most reliable logistics network. This year, we are investing more than Rs 2,800 crore (about 300 million dollars) to strengthen and upgrade our operations network as well as improve the technology that supports our infrastructure. Alongside this, we are also supporting the safety, health and financial wellbeing of our employees. We are expanding our specialised fulfilment facilities to make a wider range of products available across our larger network. This includes delivery options tailored to customer needs, ranging from deliveries in a few minutes through Amazon Now to deliveries in a few hours, and same-day or next-day delivery. Ahead of the festive season, we are excited to launch these new facilities and be ready to serve customers across the country. This investment will help us meet the changing needs of customers and sellers, while also creating lakhs of job opportunities and bringing economic benefits to local businesses across the country."