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Amazon Global Store vs The Competition: Why It's a Big Deal for Amazon India

Amazon Global Store vs The Competition: Why It's a Big Deal for Amazon India

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 18 October 2016 16:27 IST

Highlights

Amazon recently launched the Amazon Global Store in India
This allows Indian customers to purchase products directly from the US
The Global Store is simpler to use than many competitors

Amazon recently launched its much awaited Global Store in India. The new store will allow Indian consumers to purchase products directly from the United States. The Global Store will add to Amazon’s existing large database of products, and make it difficult for its local competitors to offer anything at such a scale.

While buying directly from US is nothing new for Indian customers, Amazon’s Global Store program will bring it to the masses. The store features products in fashion, electronics, computer accessories, books, and more. Amazon is also likely to add more countries to the program soon, which means you will be able to buy products from countries other than the US.

(Also see: How to Shop from the US and get Your Products Shipped)

The ability to buy just about anything, from anywhere across the globe, from the comfort of your home is quite fascinating. You no longer need to rely on your friends or relative who are flying abroad, even though that still remains a great choice for most international buyers. Here's everything you need to know about the Amazon Global Store, and how it measures up to the existing competition.

Ease of buying internationally
Amazon’s Global Store program will probably change the way Indian customers buy from other countries. For one, you don’t need to scan the Internet to find updated import duties on a product. Second, you get a clear view of what the final price will look like so there are no surprises. Third, and probably the most important, you no longer need international credit cards to make purchases. You can use your Indian debit or credit card, or even your netbanking account to make a payment on Amazon Global Store.

Another key problem Amazon is solving with its Global Store program is international returns. If you buy using another third-party service provider, you can kiss goodbye to any chances to being able to return a product. With Amazon, you can schedule a return pickup and even get a full refund in case the product is defective or in case Amazon messed up in the shipping process.

Amazon Global Store vs. The competition
There are several services that already allow you to purchase from several other countries while sitting in India. Some of the most popular ones include Shop And Ship, Borderlinx, and ShopYourWorld.

Shop And Ship requires a one-time membership fee of $45 (approximately Rs. 3,000) to sign up, while it’s free to join Borderlinx and ShopYourWorld. All these services operate differently and sometimes it can be complicated for an average user.

What these services really do is that they let you get a product shipped to a virtual address. The online store will deliver your order at this address, and then the service provider you've chosen will ship the product to your personal address. Shop and Ship charges you according to the weight of the package, and which country you're shopping from, and you'll have to pay the import duty costs when the product is delivered. Shop and Ship lets you pay the customs duties online once the package clears customs. If you don't pay online it'll still go ahead and send the package to your place, allowing you to pay cash on delivery. Borderlinx is similar, but without the signup fee, and it includes the import duty in the price. It also allows you to consolidate your orders, which can reduce the price of shipping a little.

With many of the shop and ship type of services, you have to pay for the shipping and import duty costs when the product is delivered to your place. This adds to the time it takes for a product to reach you. This is where Amazon’s Global Store wins. The product will be shipped directly to you.

The complex world of international shopping
If you take Shop and Ship for example, you’ll need to use its virtual addresses in specific countries while ordering. Once the product reaches this virtual address (which is essentially their warehouse), you are expected to mail the company an invoice of your order. Shop and Ship will need it for customs clearance. Your product is then shipped to India. Shop And Ship has agents that help you clear your shipments, but in essence it all depends on the port of entry (city where your package lands). The process can be both time consuming and complex for an average online shopper.

In case of Amazon’s Global Store, you don’t need to do any of that. Other service providers also cannot tell you how much you’ll be charged for import duties until your package gets cleared. Amazon will display an approximate import duty on the product page itself, along with shipping costs. The import duty mentioned is actually a deposit which is used to clear your product at customs. You may receive a refund from Amazon in case the actual duty charged on the product is less than the deposit, which is often the case.

Availability of products on Amazon Global Store
When it comes to the catalogue, Amazon Global Store has a variety of products to pick from fashion, electronics, computer accessories, books, and other categories. This is likely to expand further with the addition of other countries. Browsing for products and checking prices on Amazon is a breeze.

On other service providers, you’ll have to pick a store for yourself. Shop And Ship and Bordelinx offer their services in a lot of countries including US, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. ShopYourWorld includes a storefront but you’ll find a lot of products unavailable. You can make a custom request to them to import a product for you. You will be sent you a quote that you can pay to get the product delivered to you.

Pricing
In terms of pricing, Amazon Global Store wins again since you pay for shipping just once. Since other service providers reroute packages, you pay for shipping at the online store first and then to the service provider. Sometimes it can be more expensive to ship products that are low-value items. Amazon’s sellers in US might also offer a better price on the Global Store compared to other online stores you’ll end up using with other service providers. Most consumers end up with inflated import duty bills when their products land at their place.

We checked this for a few different products and generally found Amazon to be offering a good deal. For example, we checked graphics cards prices on Amazon and Newegg, and the latter was frequently a little more expensive. The MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G, for example, will set you back by Rs. 34,618.5 on Amazon, which includes all the fees involved. On Newegg, it’s listed at Rs. 28,011, plus VAT, shipping and so on, for a total of Rs. 35,537. You can get it for approximately Rs. 28,000 if you buy it directly in the US, and then you could use Shop and Ship or other services to ship it here. The shipping worked out to approximately Rs. 4,000 and you're still on the hook for duties once the card arrives, which would work out to approximately Rs. 4,000 as well - so all in all, this was actually the most expensive option. As a comparison, it costs about Rs. 43,999 on eBay India.

You should also note that when you buy on US-based online stores you will be liable to pay sales tax depending on the state where the product is being shipped, which will vary based on your virtual address. This doesn't apply to orders placed on the Amazon Global Store.

Outside the world of tech, we also found several toys and t-shirts that were cheaper by sometimes a few hundred rupees on Amazon's Global Shopping, but we couldn't spot the exact same SKUs on other stores so didn't have a direct comparison. In watches, we saw more prices that were skewed cheaper on Amazon.

For example, the Invicta Pro Diver 8935 will set you back by Rs. 5819 plus delivery fees of Rs. 296 on Amazon, but if you use Shop and Ship, you'll pay $65 for the watch, and $40 on shipping, adding up to $105 or approximately Rs. 7,000, and duties after that.

Global Store vs. Amazon US
You can also shop for products, mainly electronics and books, from Amazon US directly. The international program on Amazon US ships products to more than 75 countries including India. It works quite similar to the way Global Store operates. The biggest difference between the two is that you will be able to use your Indian credit and debit cards along with net banking to make payments on the Global Store section on Amazon India’s website.

On Amazon US you can use select Indian debit cards and international credit cards only. There’s no doubt the new Global Store will virtually eliminate the need for consumers to buy from Amazon US directly.

In the coming months, expect Amazon to make the Global Store even sweeter with bundled deals and other promotions. China is the next likely addition in the list of countries from where Indian customers will be able to buy directly. That would be interesting to see since a lot of Indian customers are already buying from Chinese sellers via Alibaba.

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Further reading: Amazon, Amazon Global Store, Shop and Ship, Borderlinx, ShopYourWorld

Harpreet Singh

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Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More

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