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Amazon India is now live
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- samirahmed 13y agoInterestingly amazon is in the backseat here and it will be interesting to see how they succeed. From my understanding http://www.flipkart.com/ http://www.flipkart.com/ is the dominant player in the online shopping marketing in India
- vineetdhanawat 13y agoYeah. For starters,amazon is giving free delivery. As far as prices are concerned, tons of books are listed at lower price as of now.
- valgaze 13y ago"Your margin is my opportunity" -Jeff Bezos
- calpaterson 13y agoThe reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
- shreyansj 13y agoI was under the impression that the books sold in India (and some other Asian countries) are low-priced international editions of those books. This is specially true for college textbooks with foreign authors.
- sshrin 13y agoYes, it is called the "Eastern Economy Edition". However, if the book is not a standard textbook, the chances of you finding an EEE is slim.
- fakeer 13y agoExtremely low cost and I practically(and truly) can't afford a book Amazom USA, even an eBook. So, ones that is not available in India or is available at sth like INR 3000 or 4000 or so, I pirate.
- kamaal 13y agoI admire your courage for saying this. For others, this is how it always happens here in India. On the other hand when the books are priced well. There is actually sweet spot for which Indian consumers will happily pay. For example I can quote of Rashmi Bansal's books. Especially 'Stay hungry, Stay Foolish'. It was priced so well, I hardly saw any pirated books on the footpaths people were more than happy to buy the book. Compare this to say with a book like "Seven habits of highly effective people' there was a time when hawkers on the footpaths would have something 100 copies always stocked because the original book was expensive and pirated ones sold like hot cakes. You won't believe this, a while back I would visit Avenue road in Bangalore and one round with foot path hawkers could give you a hint on the best sellers in the market currently.
- fakeer 13y agoI had bought Rashmi Bansal's book when it was released. I am not sure how high it was priced at the time but I guess it was not more than 125 or so. It was a well priced book. I think she had reduced the middleman's[0] commission to a great extent. Funny thing about that book, you can buy it legitimately at ~90 and even street vendors(pirated copy sellers) usually sell it at 50+ and people still buy :-) I think they never got that taste of that feeling when you read a book, hold it your hand, travel with it and then over the time appreciate the crease on it and dream passing it over to your bloodline hoping they would love reading books. Anyway, I still feel bad having to pirate any book or film or songs. Very bad. Though my next statement is technically incorrect but there are times I can't avoid pirating a book. I have reduced my music piracy. I've reduced/ the number of songs I listen to around ~ 7GB (almost all of them 320kbps or 8-20 MB on an average). Out of them around 4GB I've purchased and to be honest a lot of them is from Flipkart's 10 day freebie bonanza, but I've purchased from other sources a lot and I must say that A 7-9 Rupee DRM free song is a deal sweeter than saccharine so I like a song and I buy it. I can even go a lot more if the cost goes directly to the artist or most and I do it. Like Indian Ocean's music. I hope in a few months I'll not have any pirated song on my pc or phone. I use Spotify so that also covers a lot. I've not have any good and affordable[1] alternative for fils. I hope sth like Netflix/Hulu comes up in India or even a good DVD/BRay rental online shop which offers quality with a price. The ones we have don't have many worthwhile films int heir inventory. Yes, you are right - pricing does affect privacy, in a positive way to check it. However there are people who would just pirate! Piracy is imprinted on their minds and they never bothered to check whether it's a necessity and or is there a mid-way like a friend who stopped using WhatsApp the day his 1 yr trial was over, he just had to pay INR 55 for another year. Though I should have been this judgemental, still active in piracy myself. [0] Publisher, distributor, agent etc [1] Again, this is my point of view and someone else can just say I can buy the movies at INR 500 a dvd and this is just an excuse to pirate.
- Sven7 13y agoTake a look at e-commerce in China. Lots of people forget, that the big Chinese players are now orders of magnitude larger than the Amazon's and Ebays in the west. The "end result" thanks to "protectionist legislation" is not as straight forward as people imagine. If it was wouldnt Alibaba have been allowed to buy Yahoo ;)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- irahul 13y ago> The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards. Indian book prices, especially for foreign books which are published in India, is quite low. http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-mainly-mechanics-radiation-heat-volume-1-01/p/itmdyuvnxfhx6xhu?pid=9788185015828&ref=ebdd44f8-7c3a-46f4-b25b-0d4cc40cc22b&srno=t_1&otracker=from-search&query=lectures%20on%20physics%20by%20feynman http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-mainly-mech... Price: Rs 236 http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Vol/dp/0465024939/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1370408437&sr=8-2&keywords=feynman+lectures+on+physics+vol+1 http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Vol/dp/04... Price: USD 38(about Rs 2100) That's almost a 10 fold difference. The paper quality isn't good, it's mostly paperback[1], but paying 10 folds for a hard cover isn't worth it. Books which aren't published locally(imported) are an issue. Prices are too steep compared to books which are published here. http://www.flipkart.com/algorithm-design-manual-0002/p/itmdyhuuqathwrpx?pid=9781849967204&ref=b1285d1e-b796-4c79-96d4-ea733ceb81ff&srno=t_3&otracker=from-search&query=algorithm%20design%20manual%20by%20skiena http://www.flipkart.com/algorithm-design-manual-0002/p/itmdy... Price: Rs 5163 [1]: In the examples above, both books are low quality paperback books.
- kamaal 13y agoYou have taken one book, but in most general cases foreign author books are quite expensive in India.
- irahul 13y ago> You have taken one book, but in most general cases foreign author books are quite expensive in India. Books which are published in India are quite cheap(especially if they happen to be popular). Most of the pearson books are LPE(low price editions). Books from other publishers which are published here(marked for the Asian subcontinents) are cheap. Foreign books being cheap is the norm, not the other way round(unless they are imported).
- kamaal 13y agoI don't know from where you are buying 'foreign books for cheap' and I'm not sure if you are referring only to LPE text books. But most of the novels, and other books that I know are definitely expensive. Text books are not the only books. And of course it also depends on the definition of cheap. But pirated books sold on by footpath hawkers sell like hot cakes only because many foreign best sellers are generally expensive.
- abhaga 13y agoAs per my understanding, two things drive the prices in the market. One is the perceived value the thing provides to users. This is the primary factor is the cost of producing the good is much lower when compared to perceived value. If the cost of production is high, there is usually a cost+ pricing. One way competition reduces prices when sellers start undercutting each other in the first case. That doesn't apply to books in India. No one is making astronomical margins on books which can be cut down. The other reason prices reduce is when competition leads to reducing production cost. It can be because of expanding market, technological improvements, improving supply chains. Amazon may be able to make some difference in establishing better supply chains. But beyond that I do not see how they can help reduce the book prices in India. There has already been enough bloodbath in the online book retailing in India, so lack of competition is hardly an issue.
- evolutionblues 13y agoLooks like they have only launched with Movies and Books - hopefully other categories will follow.
- houshuang 13y agoGreat to see a good selection of Hindi novels, wish they were available for Kindle though. (Don't think the e-ink Kindles can even render Hindi though)
- __mharrison__ 13y agoNot true, they can render hindi.
- fakeer 13y agoand at good prices. Earlier I sometimes had to call Rajkamal and order over phone and used to pay VPP.
- swohns 13y agoUsed to work in International Dev for a ecom company, and India was a serious target. We ended up going elsewhere because of delivery infrastructure and local competitors, that free delivery is going to be a huge advantage.
- valgaze 13y agoInteresting- there's free delivery and also COD "cash on delivery" Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/Og9xMtn.png http://i.imgur.com/Og9xMtn.png Policy: http://www.amazon.in/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=mk_sss_dp_1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201193510&pop-up=1 http://www.amazon.in/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=mk_ss...
- gnok 13y agoThe COD part is somewhat cultural. Very few people in India will trust a credit card based system that requires you to hand over your credit card number online and accept delivery at some point in the future. Cash usage in general is disproportionately higher than other forms. I think direct payments from bank accounts is next. Cards rank a distant third.
- mayanksinghal 13y agoIt is also the case that Debit Cards are insanely popular in India, a lot more than Credit Cards. Secondly, Online Banking (banks exposing merchant APIs) is also very popular for internet purchases as it removes the middleman.
- Sven7 13y agoWhat's an example of "banks exposing merchant APIs"?
- mayanksinghal 13y agoUnfortunately, I couldn't find any documentation for these services. It is possible that the APIs are published only for the merchants who are authorized to use them, payment gateways like CCAvenue and TPSL being some of them.
- fakeer 13y agoI think this is how it goes: Banks/credit card companies have their payment APIs[0] open to parties they deal with (usually) payment gateways(now don't ask me for public methods and web service URIs) ->> payment gateway firms[1] deal with the banks and have access to those APIs ->> merchants/sellers[1] deal with payment gateways ->> customer checks out on seller/merchant's website ->> is redirected to (usually) payment gateway's portal where basic card/account credentials[2] are entered ->> is redirected bank/card's secure authentication page[3] ->> user enters login/password ->> is redirected back to seller/merchant's page with success/fail message. [0] You might have to get in touch with some bank and/or payment gateway. [1] When the seller is big, sometimes, they are themselves the payment gateways. Some PG examples are Citrus, Billdesk, SBI,CCAvenue(the shittiest) etc. [2] Here in India the basic credentials include card number, exp date, name, CVV. In the USA these same basic details are more than enough for final purchase - sometimes even minus the cvv. [3] Usually Mastercard's NetSafe or Verified By Visa etc.
- akbaralis 13y agoWhat about http://www.junglee.com/ http://www.junglee.com/. Thought that was Amazon's India store.
- ihsw 13y agoJunglee didn't sell anything but instead offered referrals to third-party seller sites[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junglee.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junglee.com
- ravinder 13y agoYup it is similar to google shopping www.google.com/shopping
- anirudhgarg 13y agoI think they are still doing the same thing. Doesn't look like any products are actually sold by Amazon.
- jsolson 13y agoThey're providing transaction processing, inventory tracking, and in some cases (e.g., http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9380349300 http://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9380349300 selected at random from the gateway) fulfillment services. Given the scope of their 3P seller business in other markets (say, the US), this constitutes a much larger entry into the market than some comments are making it out to be.
- jaseemabid 13y agojunglee might refer to amazon or shutdown now
- suyash 13y agoWasn't Amazon already in India under a different name?
- anirudhgarg 13y agoYes Junglee.com
- sameerp1 13y agoJunglee is a product discovery site. It was basically created to give them an in with sellers within India and make feelers in Indian e-commerce until they could work out their own logistics and other issues.
- mey 13y agoFinding it odd that they are using an image instead of unicode for INR, ₹. Is the browser support simply not there?
- mey 13y agoAlso find it odd that Google's calculator doesn't pick up that symbol in unicode for currency conversion.
- shared4you 13y agoSomebody needs to tell Amazon about this site: http://webrupee.com/ http://webrupee.com/ This pulls in a web font (woff) to display ₹. If Javascript is disabled it shows up as "Rs" instead. A fair compromise instead of images everywhere.
- Alterlife 13y agoThis is one of those technical things that makes little or no difference to a customer. They'll probably get to it eventually.
- drivers99 13y agoI can't see the symbol you posted, so apparently not. (both FireFox 21.0 and IE8, Windows 7).
- sameerp1 13y agoThe key thing that people need to be aware of is that Amazon is still not allowed to sell anything in India. They are exclusively a marketplace because the Indian govt does not allow foreign investment into e-commerce. Instead for now they are an intermediary. The end customer pays Amazon the money who passes it onto the actual seller (after taking some commission). Amazon might even handle the logistics for some sellers. But the transaction is between the marketplace seller and the customer. Until Amazon is granted approval to become a seller on their own right, their impact on Indian e-commerce will be much more limited than it would be otherwise.
- ajju 13y agoSuch bureaucratic B.S.
- ankitml 13y agolooks like a negative commission right now.
- ErrantX 13y agoSo out of interest; what's it like in India at the moment, buying online? For example; with Amazon in the UK and can order before about 5pm (often later) and have it arrive tomorrow. That even works for some marketplace sellers. Is there comparable service from Indian retailers? (I ask out of genuine interest to see how the markets compare!)
- tcube 13y agoWell there is Flipkart (http://www.flipkart.com/ http://www.flipkart.com/). They usually take about 2-3 days to deliver. Again that depends where you are located and the product you are ordering. But they do have a huge collection of stuff.
- sameerp1 13y agoThe most interesting thing about Indian e-commerce shipping to me (someone who lived 28 years in the USA and the last 1 year in India) is that there is no concept of choosing delivery speed. There is only standard shipping. You need the product tomorrow? Well you're out of luck. It'll be there in a couple days if you're in a metro, which definitely isn't bad for standard shipping. But you don't get to control the shipping speed. (Note #1: I have gotten some items the next day, but it was out of luck. If you live in Mumbai, New Delhi, or Bangalore, this will happen occasionally that the warehouse on the outskirts of the city will have the product and you'll get it the next day. But it's just not close to guaranteed.) (Note #2: I heard or read something that Flipkart, often known as "India's Amazon", will soon be offering expedited shipping for an additional fee).
- gnufied 13y agoDon't know why Kaspersky Internet Security is warning about phishing url for all the Amazon.in links. Has anyone else seen it?
- nikic 13y agoI'm seeing it too. Probably people have used domains like amazon.XYZ for phishing in the past.
- bshastry 13y agoHmm...Does using SSL help? Right now the amazon india domain does not get redirected automatically to https://www.amazon.in https://www.amazon.in (on Chrome v.25)
- markild 13y agoI'm not using Kaspersky myself, but I'm guessing they simply mark certain high profile websides on not-known tlds as phishing sites. Think "amazon.co.tw/password_reset.php"
- pyvek 13y agoLaunch infographic - http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/31/Press_Releases/AmINmarketplace.png http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/31/Press_Releases/Am... More - http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=footer_press?ie=UTF8&node=1592137031 http://www.amazon.in/b/ref=footer_press?ie=UTF8&node=159...
- copper-horse 13y agoAh, well, they'll find the right person to pay eventually and they'll be a real business in India...
- hpagey 13y agoI think the key to successful ecommerce model in India is hybrid of online and offline experiences. I had the following idea floating in my mind for long time now . Let me know if it makes sense a) You franchise out "ecommerce" physical shops. This is a physical location where customer can come in surf ecommerce websites and place an order. b) There is someone at this shop who will collect money on behalf of ecommerce websites. This could be cash credit debit whatever. Make these shops available at every nukad (every street). Hell give other shop owners these ecommerce terminals (just like sim card selling process or prepaid minutes fulfillment process) . c) The packages are shipped to this shop or your home. Since these shops are conveniently located, near train stations, in airports, malls, picking up packages is not an hassle. d) serve complimentary hot tea while people are shopping. The actual order is fulfilled at an warehouse just like amazon.
- rluhar 13y agoThis is quite similar to way convenience stores work in Japan. You can pay at a convenience store and get Amazon to ship your goods to a convenience store. Japan (similar to India) is still very much a cash based society and I suppose some people prefer to pay in cash at a convenience store instead of paying online. India also has loads of tiny convenience stores, I think this is an excellent idea. It also simplifies the logistics. The eCommerce company only has to build out a supply chain to the convenience store instead of having to deliver to each customer or rely on the Indian postal service. (I have lived both in India and Japan)
- tellarin 13y agoIn China you can have Amazon (and other major e-commerce firms) ship things to your home or office and pay in cash on delivery (for most items). The amount of delivery people in Beijing, especially near lunch time, is quite impressive.
- nmridul 13y agoMost Indian online stores (Flipcart etc) has cash on delivery option.
- samspenc 13y agoWow this has taken like forever. But congrats!
- goatcurious 13y agoThey plan to manage delivery too: http://www.nextbigwhat.com/amazon-india-courier-service-297/ http://www.nextbigwhat.com/amazon-india-courier-service-297/
- antihero 13y agoCurrently only books and TV shows. If I was rich and in India, I'd buy hundreds and hundreds of dildos to get them to the front page.
- nvenky 13y agoI hope they could enable the Kindle store soon for amazon.in
- Pxtl 13y agoAs a Canadian, let me just let you know you're going to have to wait a few years for it to stop sucking. Amazon Canada was a joke for most of its existence, and had only gotten close to the American offerings in breadth and pricing in the last year or two.
- scott_karana 13y agoI wish I was as optimistic as you: I still find the Canadian store to be pretty pathetic.
- nleach 13y agoInteresting that the IP address resolves to their datacenter in Ireland. I would have assumed either Singapore or Tokyo. Is there any reason that a continental connection is preferable to an.. aquatic one?
- canttestthis 13y agoBandwidth is very expensive in both Singapore and Tokyo.
- nleach 13y agoIn e-commerce, doesn't latency == $$? Is the bandwidth premium really that much higher? Or is the performance difference between the geographies negligible?
- BoyWizard 13y agoThis is true for places that have good conditions and internet. You have to remember, power outages are a daily occurrences in even built up places such as Bangalore, and internet connectivity isn't crash hot anyway. Latency of the website won't have as much of an impact in these conditions (IMO, anyway)
- fakeer 13y agoIt's the beginning so I wouldn't say "the inventory disappoints me" outright. But it does. It's not a garage startup's inventory for haven's sake. Two friends have started a sort of startup for books and movies and their inventory is comparable, though with a shitty interface for which I have shamed them many times.
- gautamsewani 13y agoWasn't FDI in retail for online sales banned in India? When did that change? (If it ever was the case).
- vishal0123 13y agoIts good to see that amazon has price similar to similar competing website, which is mostly $2-$5, rather than US standard price $10-$14. Compare the price of bestselling books in flipkart and amazon.in from http://www.flipkart.com/view-books/l327/ http://www.flipkart.com/view-books/l327/ and http://www.amazon.in/gp/bestsellers/books/ http://www.amazon.in/gp/bestsellers/books/
- philfrasty 13y agoFirst point one sees on the page is so India „Genuine Products“ :)
- suprasanna 13y agoI'm visiting India currently from the States and the biggest hurdle to launching delivery sort of services here must have been effecively locating homes. Addresses that most "western" countries consider expected (ex. 1 Apple Loop, City, State Zip) don't exist here. Companies literally print on ads "On ____ Road, near ____ Terminal behind ______ City, State". If Amazon somehow figured this out for India delivery - they'll do great. Lastly, a 30 day return policy (or any return policy) is unheard of here. Electronics, clothes, anything I bought here strictly said no returns no matter what (even if defective).
- manojlds 13y agoI don't know how the address is a issue. Care to explain? 30 day return policy? Check out flipkart.com, amongst others.
- vinitool76 13y agoThreat to Flipkart? I think yes, let flipkart create a good market for you and now come and rule. Smart Idea!
- bonchibuji 13y agoThe founders of Flipkart (Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal) used to work for Amazon. So, I think there's no doubt of where they got the business model for Flipkart from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipkart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipkart
- jmaddox 13y agoWTF, only books and movies on the first day, Who wants to buy these.
- amalag 13y agoPossibly dumb question, what is the difference between amazon.in and junglee.com ?
- linux_devil 13y agoAre they planning to have their own warehouse in India?