Amazon India on Tuesday said it is setting up five new centres to sort packages in Visakhapatnam, Farukhnagar, Bangalore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad which will improve the speed of deliveries to customers in the upcoming festive sales season.

The ecommerce major said it was expanding eight existing sorting warehouses, which along with the new centres, will increase its overall sorting area to over 2.2 million square feet in India. These centres aid Amazon in assembling packages before they are sent to local delivery stations from where they are shipped to consumers.

“By expanding and investing in the sort centre network, we are positioned to ensure continued customer and seller delight, ahead of the upcoming festive season,” said Abhinav Singh, Director of Transportation Services at Amazon India.

“This expansion will create hundreds of opportunities for individuals and ancillary industries especially during this time when economic growth is a priority for the country,” Singh added.

Amazon had in July announced that it was adding 10 new fulfilment centres and expanding five existing buildings to cater to increased demand. The addition enhances the company’s warehousing space by 20% to 32 million cubic feet, with its total floor area spanning 8 million square feet.

The expansion of Amazon’s fulfilment network infrastructure is a yearly ritual ahead of the festive season, which serves as the most lucrative quarter for India’s retail sector. Owing to softness in demand in the offline retail space due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online sales are expected to be strong despite weaker consumer sentiment, according to industry watchers.