E-commerce in India: Pleasant surprise with online book order

I was pleasantly surprised last week when I ordered Behind the Cloud : the untold story of how salesforce.com went from idea to billion-dollar company - and revolutionized an industry from Flipkart. I placed the order at 6:45 pm on Thursday evening. At 11pm, I received a confirmation email that book had been shipped, and at 4 pm the next day, I received the book. This took me by surprise - a book ordered online (no delivery charges, no special instructions) was delivered to me within 24 hours. The fact that this happened in India which is not exactly known for speedy delivery of goods makes it all the more impressive.
However, a closer look at the wrapping on the delivery package told me something - the book was delivered to me from a warehouse/store which was located just 4 kms from the delivery address. That explained the incredibly low delivery time.. I guess I got lucky. I'll keep an eye on the delivery time the next time I place an order on Flipkart.

This story apart, credit does go to Flipkart and other similar sites for improving the online shopping experience in India. e-tailing is a current rage in India and there are dozens of sites competing in this space. This intense competition means companies are trying hard to differentiate and offering sweet deals to customers. As a customer, I am not complaining :)