India’s biggest e-tailer Flipkart will pump in over USD 2 billion in beefing up its logistics muscle in next few years, the company said during the inaugural ceremony of its 17th warehousing facility in Medchal near Hyderabad.
The fulfilment centre is spread over 2.2 lakh sq ft and holds storage capacity of 5.89 lakh cubic ft. It would create over 17,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities within the area and is expected to ship out 120,000 items every day.
“We plan to invest USD3-4 billion (about Rs 19,500-26,000 crore) over the next five years to create a strong logistics network, with a focus on technology,” Flipkart’s co-founder and COO Binny Bansal, said.
Flipkart plans to invest heavily in building plug-andplay cloud-based services and solutions in supply chain management. “These will be made available to third-party players to manage their logistics for B2B or B2C shipments,” said Bansal.
The company will also spend USD500 million to set up 80-100 fulfilment centres over the next five years, half of which will be located in tier II and III cities, he said. Flipkart is targeting reduced timelines for delivery and plans to fulfil orders within a day for the southern market from the Medchal warehouse. “With the network of close to 100 warehouses across the country, we plan to reduce the time taken to complete an order to two days maximum,” Bansal informed.
The southern region accounts for up to 40% of the company’s market, he said.
“So far we have invested USD100 million in setting up fulfilment centres over the past eight years and going ahead, we will fund the addition of new centres and building the supply chain,” he said. The company has done away with the warehouse model in Karnataka, where inventory from sellers on the marketplace is stored and packaged for delivery due to the double taxation policy.
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