Amazon fans in India, the wait is finally over – Amazon.in is live and taking orders. Currently, Amazon India is selling only books and movies through their new India website but you can soon see other categories coming up. On the other hand Junglee is also doing decently well although Amazon has not been promoting it too much obviously because they were waiting for the Amazon India portal to be launched soon.
Amazon.in is given free shipping on all orders as a limited period offer after which free shipping will be valid only on order above Rs 499. Well, this is just the beginning. Everyone knows Amazon has a lot of cash which they will be using to attract Indian shoppers. They will be directly competing with the likes of Flipkart, etc. who have established a very good name for themselves in this very conservative market.
On the other hand, Amazon.com is looking to expand its business to the online grocery division too. While food is a low-margin business, Amazon could outperform similar online grocery services by delivering orders for higher-margin items like electronics at the same time.
One of the people familiar with AmazonFresh’s expansion plans said new warehouses will have refrigerated areas for food, but also space nearby to store up to one million general merchandise products, in some cases.
Amazon is searching for new, large markets to enter as the company tries to maintain a growth rate that has fueled a 220 percent surge in its shares over the past five years. The grocery business in the United States, which generated $568 billion in retail sales last year, may be a ripe target.