Amazon Online Store Finally Goes Live In India: The End of Flipkart Era?

Amazon stepped into the Indian boundaries back in February 2012, when the global online marketplace launched Junglee.com in India - the online price compare site.

Now after taking an insight into the Indian market and consumers the well-known online seller finally decided to put his strong foothold in the country. To escalate the same, finally Amazon India online site - Amazon.in - has gone live from today.

Along with the site, the company has also announced two new seller programs - ‘Selling on Amazon' and ‘Fulfillment by Amazon,' providing customers and Indian retailers of all sizes a platform to sell their products online with no listing fees and a pay-as-you-go fulfillment services.

Well, the world's largest online retailer is currently allowing the customers to purchase, books, movies and TV shows; while according to the company's press release - Amazon.in will introduce additional categories including Mobile Phones and Cameras in the coming weeks.

The new service at present is offering books, movies and TV shows - video products. The company has said that it will introduce additional categories including Mobile Phones and Cameras in the coming weeks.

Amazon.in - Highlighted Features

Amazon.in Book store features over 7 million print books across 200 plus categories including fiction, management, children's books and academic publications.

Customers can search and preview the text inside more than 1.3 million books through its Search inside feature.

Customers can also choose which books to buy based on author and customer reviews which have been sourced from Amazon.com.

The Movies & TV shows store features a collection of over 12,000 titles in English and Hindi across DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Video CD formats. The catalog extends to documentaries, kids' edutainment, music videos, TV serials, and films across several genres including action, romance, comedy, horror, drama, and musicals

Amazon.in, as launch promotion, will be offering Free delivery of products to all customers, for a limited period of time.

Retailers in India to advertise their products for free to millions of Indian shoppers and drive targeted traffic to their stores. With the introduction of ‘Selling on Amazon' and 'Fulfillment by Amazon', sellers will have access to unlimited and free virtual shelf space and a scalable, pay-as-you-go fulfillment and customer service offerings.

Also, sellers will have access to Amazon's coaching tools and a suite of integrated services that can help them grow their business online. What's more? Listing on Amazon.in by sellers is free.

As a promotional offer, Amazon.in is letting sellers to list products on the site for free. The offer stands for one year and sellers will be able to list an unlimited number of products.

A Big Threat to Flipkart?

With the arrival of Amazon in India, many analysts are predicting that the global online will push, India's most popular e-commerce site - Flipkart in troubled waters. Especially, if Amazon continues free shipping service to the customers, then it will definitely attract more numbers going by its brand value.

Chances are that in the end, Amzon may end up buying the Indian counter parts or, if that doesnt happens, then the online site has all the takes to kill the e-commerce sites like Flipkart, Infibeam and others.

Whatever maybe the case, the Indian tech world is going to witness some serious rivalry, between Amazon and Flipkart, and the later party will have to come out with really out-of-the-box strategies to obstruct the growth path of Amazon in India.