e-commerce giant banks on VR tech to woo customers in metros

Chennai and Coimbatore have been seeing heavy traffic with buyers from as far as Salem, Dindigul and Madurai buying the products. That is the reason for expanding its fulfilment centre network, into which hefty investments have been made, said Subbu Palaniappan, Head – Prime Member Growth & Engagement, Amazon India. 

Ahead of the two-day Prime Day 2018, beginning July 16, Amazon India has installed virtual reality booths across 11 malls in the top 5 cities including Chennai. 

Customers will be able to experience the new products launched on Prime Day in Virtual Reality (VR) before buying. After seeing its membership doubling since the last event, this time around Amazon is hoping to cash in on the VR experience to drive up its business.  

Incidentally, apparel and appliances are the fast-moving categories with Amazon setting up warehouses to stock large appliances to cater to the buyers. “On a normal day, one out of three orders come from a Prime member,” he says, citing specific cases of a 72-year-old man from Tiruchy and an 80-year-old lady, warming up to the idea of Prime Day. 

While the former bought a refrigerator of a well-known brand, the elderly lady opted to have Ayurvedic products delivered at her doorstep. Last year, Amazon.in had 41 Fulfilment Centres (FCs) with a storage capacity of 13 mn cubic feet. 

This year, it has added 26 FCs, taking its network to 67 FCs with a total storage capacity of 20 mn cubic feet.  This is a 1.5X increase in storage capacity from last year.  The 26 new buildings in 2018 include 15 specialised FCs for Prime Now, 6 specialised FCs for fulfilment of orders from the furniture and large appliance category and 5 FCs to execute orders from other categories, he said. 

“We have 6 FCs in TN - 2 in Coimbatore and the rest in Chennai. Of these 2 are dedicated buildings for large appliances and furniture. We launched 1 FC in 2018 which is a dedicated infrastructure for large appliances and furniture located in Coimbatore,’’ he added.