Don’t be surprised if an Amazon associate ends up delivering a product you ordered directly from your favourite brand’s website. That’s because the company is now opening up its logistics and delivery network to fulfill orders that haven’t been placed on Amazon.in.
Sellers, manufacturers, retailers, and D2C brands that sell on Amazon.in can now use a new program called Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) to service and deliver orders that have come through other sales channels. MCF will enable sellers with inventory management so that can sell on any marketplace, social media, or their own website without having to worry. Once enrolled in MCF, Amazon's fulfillment centres will act as a single source of inventory for sellers to fulfill their orders without needing to split and commit inventory separately.
Delivering to 100% of India’s serviceable pin codes
Sellers can also use Amazon’s delivery network—which covers 100% of India's serviceable pin codes—for order deliveries. For these small businesses or young entrepreneurs, MCF simplifies order management, tracking, tax invoicing, and shipping, regardless of where the order has come from. It therefore frees them up to focus on their core differentiators—product development, marketing, and customer service.
24x7 fulfillment of shopping orders
“The challenges of digitisation, limited reach, and productivity constraints often hamper the expansion of medium and small-scale brands, along with other challenges like inventory tracking and high shipping costs. Multi-Channel Fulfilment addresses these challenges through comprehensive and best-in-class solution for all their fulfilment needs. It allows sellers to focus on core business activities like product development, marketing, and customer service,” says Vivek Somareddy, Vice President, Fulfilment Channels & Global Trade, Amazon India.
“This innovative fulfillment solution ensures super-fast delivery, 24x7 fulfilment of customer orders, and removes the need for inventory pooling for separate sales channels. Its seamless integration, advanced technology, best in class fulfilment, vast delivery coverage, advanced tracking, and comprehensive support enable sellers to thrive in the Indian market. Efficient and reliable fulfillment through Multi-Channel Fulfilment by Amazon can positively impact a seller's brand reputation, leading to increased customer trust and loyalty,” he adds.
Additionally, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) offers sellers a wide range of services, including inbound transportation, labeling, storage, order management, pick-pack, and shipping. FBA helps sellers streamline their operations and maximise efficiency.
Three sellers who were part of a month-long pilot project on MCF explain how they’ve been able to leverage the new program to not only increase sales but also provide a smooth and reliable delivery experience to their customers across India.
“We can now focus on product development and quality”
Bandu Pawar started Sangola Agro Products, a food products business, in Maharashtra’s Solapur three years ago. Sangola now has a network of 225 franchise partners across India for products such as jaggery, sunflower oil, and groundnut oil. In 2022, Sangola started selling on Amazon.in and saw an immediate surge in orders: from 10 orders a day to over 100 daily orders. “Before we went online, we used to produce around 300 kgs of jaggery a day. Now we produce up to 600 kgs,” says Pawar.
While the company continued to receive orders from its website and franchisee partner network, delivering those orders wasn’t half as seamless as the Amazon experience. “Our factory is in a rural area, so it took us anywhere between 5 to 11 days to fulfill an order. Amazon has set certain benchmarks in the industry, such as next day delivery, so customers today expect the same experience from every seller,” he adds, saying that MCF has taken a huge burden off his shoulders. “For orders not placed on Amazon.in, I used to spend 50% of my time on logistics and warehousing. That’s now drastically reduced to 5%, allowing me to focus on Sangola’s core strength: making high-quality products for our customers," says Pawar. With MCF, Sangola is now also able to deliver to customers in remote locations like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Tripura.
“MCF ensures faster delivery and reduces returns”
Jai Ingredients is a cosmetic and nutritional company founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jayanshu Chaturvedi says his company has always been an ‘Amazon first’ brand, even though it has a retail website of its own and a presence on 13 other marketplaces.
Chaturvedi says he has struggled with high return rates on orders that haven’t been placed on Amazon.in; nearly 40% of orders placed through the Jai Ingredients website are returned for various reasons. On the other hand, orders placed through Amazon.in over the past year have had a return rate of under 10%.
“We signed up for the MCF pilot project in August this year and it has considerably improved our business. MCF has simplified warehousing, packing, and logistics handling, and has also reduced delivery timelines. Orders that previously took 2 weeks are now being delivered within 7 days,” says Chaturvedi.
The company now receives over 1,000 daily orders outside of Amazon.in, and MCF has significantly helped reduce overall costs. This has allowed Jai Ingredients to focus on advertising, which now accounts for nearly 30% of its overall sales.
“We expect to hit ₹1 crore in sales soon”
Gloxy Enterprises, based in Veraval (Gujarat), has been selling kitchen utensils, curtain brackets, and related products for nearly 5 years now. Dhaval Hirapara of Gloxy Enterprises says the greatest advantage of using MCF is the delivery speed.
“We’re able to deliver orders in just 2 days via Amazon, as compared to third party partners who take about 8 days,” says Hirapara, adding, “This has also helped in reducing order cancellations and returns.” Returns can happen due to multiple, sometimes conflicting, reasons. Hirapara notes that in some instances, the third-party delivery associate would say that the customer was unavailable at the time of delivery while direct verification showed that the customer was actually present. Amazon’s trusted delivery service across India has helped Hirapara overcoming this challenge. Gloxy is now doing ₹70 lakhs worth of sales annually and Hirapara hopes to hit the ₹1 crore mark soon.
Amazon's MCF is available at an introductory price of Rs 59 per order. Read more here.
