To meet consumer demand and deliver consumer satisfaction, Amazon India is strengthening its last-mile network ahead of the festive season. The E-commerce giant on Tuesday announced the launch of a new version of its Delivery Service Partner (DSP) programme in India that allows aspiring entrepreneurs to set up and launch their own package delivery business.
DSPs are local companies that Amazon partners with to deliver packages from a central location to the customer’s doorstep. As of now, the company already has over 40 such logistics businesses in the first batch of its DSP programme. Amazon says that these partners would be supported through ‘consistent volume, logistics experience, technology, and custom resources that help their businesses thrive’.
Amazon’s DSP services is also launched in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
Amazon takes no joining fee for small businesses, however they would need to account for startup costs arising from setting up the business, traveling to attend Amazon training, hiring and vetting of delivery associates, and subscribing to any other additional business services. The tentative startup costs can vary from Rs 1.5 Lac to 5 Lacs depending on factors such as preferred location, team size, entity type, etc.
“The new offering will serve as an incubator and enable rapid growth opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs in the logistics sector, who will, in turn, be able to create additional job opportunities and a great working environment for their associates while building a strong foundation for their own entrepreneurial journey.”
~ Akhil Saxena, VP – Customer Fulfilment, APAC, MENA and LATAM, Amazon
While developing a delivery network amazon wanted a great teams who understand their communities and the best answer to that was small business owners. The company since the launch of its DSP programme has invested over $1 billion in technology globally and as a result, 2,500 small logistics companies have created over “tens of thousands of jobs” for delivery associates globally.
Amazon informed that in India, the programme has over 300 entrepreneurs managing 1,500 DSP stations across 750 cities and “creating jobs for tens of thousands of locals.
The e-commerce company is also planning to more than double its network of fulfillment centres in India with the expansion of its nine centres and launching of 11 new centres.
The expansion was planned to increase storage capacity at the company’s fulfillment centres by 40 per cent while the total storage capacity will stand at 43 million cubic feet for its 8.5 lakh sellers, the majority of which are MSMEs, the company had said in July this year.
“Excited about the expansion plan of our fulfillment network across India, ahead of the festive season. Along with offering 43 million cubic feet of storage space to our sellers, this will create tens of thousands of direct & indirect work opportunities,” Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India had tweeted.
