【Hostess in Heat】

Amazon’s latest offering for India is Hostess in Heatits mammoth global store.

Amazon India has launched the Global Store in the country, giving people access to a range of products, many of which are yet to officially make their way to India.

The Global Store currently has over four million products across 12 categories, but the company says it will be increasing its catalog over the next few months. One category that could instantly help Amazon India is fashion. The ecommerce company’s India rival Flipkart (largest ecommerce player in India) owns fashion-focused Myntra and Jabong portals.

The move could help Amazon India win high spending customers in the country, who purchase things from abroad. Though these products will carry their usual import duty, a customer won’t have to go through the hassle of dealing with custom officers and logistic companies that these sort of transactions usually entail.

Another benefit of the store is the pricing in Indian Rupees, which means buyers will get to know the exact amount they would have to pay rather than having an approximate idea depending on the day's exchange rate and the transaction fee applied by banks. Amazon India says it will support Indian credit cards and debit cards as usual, but cash on deliverypayment option, something very popular in India, will not be available just yet.

These products will carry a "global store" tag with them, helping users better distinct these products from others. Delivery of these imported products will vary from two to 10-plus days, depending on the delivery option a user avails. Priority deliveries will incur extra charges, whereas Standard delivery will be the slowest and cheapest.

The launch of Global Store is the latest effort from Amazon to gain grounds in India. The company has been increasingly expanding its presence in the country. In June, CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon will invest an additional $3 billion in India, totalling the overall investment in the country to $5 billion. Since then Amazon has launched its Prime service, offering people same day or two-day delivery for their products. The company will be launching Prime Video service in India soon. It has been scoring deals with major Indian studios for exclusive access to local content.

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