Welcome Amazon India!

I am not very optimistic about Indian Amazon and its ability to provide satisfactory service to local customers. After all it is just the brand name and service implementers will be local only. I have seen in case of so many multi-national where the service standard varies from place to place - Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and latest is Canon.

I will be happy to be proven wrong.
 
manoja2k said:
I am not very optimistic about Indian Amazon and its ability to provide satisfactory service to local customers. After all it is just the brand name and service implementers will be local only. I have seen in case of so many multi-national where the service standard varies from place to place - Apple, Samsung, Lenovo and latest is Canon.

I will be happy to be proven wrong.
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Even if the service implementers are local, Amazon knows how to control the quality from their extensive experience. Do you think they will just let them on a free run and award contracts without having strict protocols in place? Even the local Flipkart has decent enough service. One can only hope that Amazon will better them.
 
quixand said:
Amazon USA's USP is their large assortment of products and Delivery model (same day delivery) which allows them to price it lower.
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Amazon does not provide 'Same day delivery', unless you are given the option of 'local express delivery' (works only when they have a warehouse in the same city, which is very rare). What has made them popular in terms of delivery model is their 'Prime shipping' option which provides free 2Day shipping. 'Prime' costs money, $79/- per annum to be exact.

In the US, AMZN has been losing money on Prime/free shipping, so much so that, they recently revamped shipping prices on a vast majority of their products such that free shipping is no longer an option unless the total order value meets a minimum amount.

@blkrb0t AMZN doesn't have a major 'private label'. The concerns are about regulations that do not permit FDI in multi-brand retail. If AMZN were to setup a proper virtual store, they would be selling items from multiple brands, the exact thing current regulations prohibit, hence the entry into India with a 'marketplace'.
 
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I should have clarified, regulations permit upto 51% FDI in multi-brand retail (aka JV between local/Indian entity & foreign firm). Pretty sure AMZN will not be interested in such a setup.
 
Some new regulations came out for FDI. Makes it even more difficult for people to come in, and companies here to merge. What a mess.
 
If there's one "feature" I could ask for it would be to allow us to buy things on Amazon UK/USA (even if it means paying in Forex) and have them delivered by Amazon.in.

There are a number of things I want to buy from Amazon UK/USA but they are expensive items and I am extremely wary about them reaching me in good condition (or at all for that matter).

I also wouldn't be surprised to find that there are a number of people who would love to buy a Kindle in Rs. via Amazon.in with proper warranty and support as well as have the option to buy E-books available on Amazon UK/USA using Rs. rather than forex...
 
Rickyk said:
I also wouldn't be surprised to find that there are a number of people who would love to buy a Kindle in Rs. via Amazon.in with proper warranty and support as well as have the option to buy E-books available on Amazon UK/USA using Rs. rather than forex...
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My first excitement when I heard Amazon launching in India was due to this. Kindles are the unprecedented leaders in eBook market.
 
blkrb0t said:
Can someone explain what exactly these new norms mean?
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Basically $100M of investment. 50% back end and 50% front end. From the scratch. And old alliances and ventures will not count. They have to walk in with 100M dollars, and push it into our systems. Places like Bharti Retail/Spencer which would like to merge with the big daddies, will not be seen as lucrative, cause they will not add to the ROI pie or the $100M bucket.
 
Rickyk said:
If there's one "feature" I could ask for it would be to allow us to buy things on Amazon UK/USA (even if it means paying in Forex) and have them delivered by Amazon.in.

There are a number of things I want to buy from Amazon UK/USA but they are expensive items and I am extremely wary about them reaching me in good condition (or at all for that matter).

I also wouldn't be surprised to find that there are a number of people who would love to buy a Kindle in Rs. via Amazon.in with proper warranty and support as well as have the option to buy E-books available on Amazon UK/USA using Rs. rather than forex...
Click to expand...



well you can buy a Kindle from amazon.com and get it delivered in India. And amazon will support the product through the warranty. The dont even ask you to ship the product back.

My kindle keyboard went back, and they shipped a replacement back within a week. Amazon's india kindle store though I avoid as they have limited books. The titles which are available in US store are far more.
 
There seem to be some cheap blu rays for 400 Rs. odd. Not sure if they are retailing any cheaper elsewhere.
 
From what I understand, its not too different from eBay right now.

Then this page: http://services.amazon.in/services/sell-on-amazon/pricing.html
Says referral fees is 5% (promotional) and 12% later on. So Amazon's cut is 5%/12%. I'm not sure what margins online sellers have, and how long after starting up do they decide to earn profit (as opposed to offering discounts to promote their brand), but this 5%/12% might make them costlier than quite a few sites. As it is, I find eBay's (that charges a similar cut) prices more than Infibeam/HS18 etc.

Their USP overseas is a humongous product range. Like an online Walmart. So unless they decide to sell everything under the Indian sun, I don't know...
 
They are just acting as mediators between the customers and suppliers, unlike in other markets where they also sell themselves...
do they intend to do the same in future or they'll start selling their own products in india too?

BTW, they don't give fancy bookmarks -_-
 
don't get too excited guys. we dont have FDI yet and the FDI regulations planned to be implemented by the present central govt expressly excludes FDI in the area of online-retailing/ecommerce. my assessment is - nothing substantial will happen in policy till the general elections. as all are in poll preparation mode, it's only status quo for now. Amazon is just warming up for the future.


_
 
Government will only pass bills in which the see potential to create another scam and gulp the money. Sick government of this Bhagwan bharose country.
 
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