The E-commerce giant makes its move in India after the UK and USA.

The e-commerce giant Amazon has unveiled plans to open its logistics infrastructure to online businesses for non-amazon orders, reported several sources Amazon briefed about the matter recently. This decision will mark a significant transition in Amazon's presence in India. Amazon is well-aware of the tremendous potential of the Indian market. Following its UK launch and a few months of silent testing in the US, Amazon will now open its infrastructure to third party retailers in the Indian market. Amazon had been testing in the US market with " Buy with Prime", and now it's set to shake up the Indian market with this move. According to an analysis of the archived pages, the company has been testing the service in India for at least a few months. Amazon may announce its plans formally in the coming months.

The service is called Amazon Shipping and offers its customers “extensive reach and the highest reachability", the company's website states. It's a new vertical, allowing direct-to-customer (D2C) brands, logistics aggregators and other businesses to take direct orders from customers, and deliver non-amazon orders. Amazon's impressive presence in the Indian market, is a principal factor behind the impressively low logistical cost it is offering. Ben Thompson, the American business, technology, and media analyst and the author of Stratechery has said earlier this year,
"Today Amazon’s logistics is massive and fully integrated from the fulfillment center to the doorstep, even though it only serves Amazon; the obvious next step is opening it up to non-Amazon retailers, and that is exactly what is happening,”; and finally Amazon has taken the next step.

Amazon has invested around $6.5 billion in India over the last seven years, and right now, Amazon is one of the big players in the market here. Amazon's local shipping services arm reported total revenues of Rs 4,581 crore in FY22, which is a 12.6% jump from last year. The company saw its losses increase by 38% to Rs 95 crore in FY22.
It is competing with local giants such as Flipkart, which with its EKart also started taking on retailers to ship non-flipkart products earlier this year. There are several other key players who will be affected greatly with this Amazon move, including Delhivery, Ecom Express, and several legacy logistics giants such as Bluedart and India Post.

The logistics business is housed by Amazon Transportation Services (ATS), which is one of the key India entities of Amazon. Amazon shipping will be offering shipping at competitive prices and includes a dedicated support channel. The company assured that there will be no additional fee for delivery on the weekends. Customers also will not have to be tied to any consignment contract and will be able to cancel their services any time.
“The shipping rates being offered are similar to what an Amazon merchant will be given for the marketplace orders. Over the last few weeks, the outreach is more consistent from Amazon executives, and this is being promoted actively,” one of the Amazon executives shared with a news source.

For this endeavor, Amazon has partnered with local firms, Shiprocket, Unicommerce, Easy Ecom, ClickPost and Vinculum for order and delivery management systems, according to the company website.
Amazon has spread its reach over 14,000 PIN codes in India, aiming for on-time performance, eventually reducing overall logistic cost and improving customer experience with its high-quality service.

“We’re always working to develop new, innovative ways to support small and medium businesses and serve our customers. However, at this point, we don’t have any additional details to share,” said one of the amazon executives.

Amazon's move may unsettle its competitors, but there is a lot of excitement amongst entrepreneurs and business gurus alike. All eyes are on Amazon as the giant takes its first step in the Indian waters. However, Amazon's experience and consistent performance speak in its favor.

Rajat Tuli, partner at Kearney, a consulting firm, had this to say about Amazon's move:
“Amazon has perhaps the best technology (for logistics) and manpower for every pin code. It would be a lot easier for them to offer this shipping service. For brands, too, they can tap into the Amazon network without having to list as a seller and not losing consumer data to the marketplace. They (Amazon) are superiorly placed to do this..but its impact on others will depend on how seriously they expand this here,”
“They might be able to offer it cheaper than others also.”