Ekart, the logistics arm of online marketplace Flipkart has signed on a network of 700 corner stores across 28 cities as part of its alternative delivery programme. Through the programme, the company plans on powering last-mile delivery using personnel at the corner stores in a radius of 500 to 800 metres. This would improve the success of delivery attempts by 10%, a significant number for Flipkart which currently delivers over 3 lakh shipments daily.
As part of its alternative delivery programme, which has been in the works for the past eight to nine months, Ekart had set up experience centres and pick-up zones at tech parks, where office employees can collect their orders from a single outlet and also partnered with 280 outlets of Apollo Pharmacy, where customers can pick up their shipments, as reported earlier this year.
The move comes at a time when Flipkart is looking to fulfill majority of its orders through Ekart and is strengthening its logistics business to serve third-party orders as well. Binny Bansal who took over as CEO of Flipkart in January is looking to position the logistics arm as a standalone business.
“The current tie-up with small corner stores, photocopy centres, mobile stores and internet cafes gives us greater scalability to serve towns, which give small volumes of 25 to 30 orders per day and helps the corner stores augment their income at a small premium,” said Neeraj Aggarwal, Vice-President of operations at Flipkart. He added that out of 14% of Ekart’s volumes, which are routed through the alternative delivery model, half was directed to the corner stores in catchment areas, which give high volumes to Flipkart.
“Right now we are doing over 15,000 orders a day through corner stores and by March 2017, the alternate delivery model will be used to fulfil 35% of Ekart’s overall volumes,” added Aggarwal.
Source: The Economic Times
