The Flipkart Group today announced that its supply chain arm, eKart logistics, will now offer its end to end supply chain solutions (including logistics and warehousing) to brands, platforms and small and large businesses across the country, externalising its expertise and tech-enabled infrastructure to help businesses seamlessly connect with their customers.
Established in 2009, eKart is a pioneer in India’s e-commerce supply chain and logistics industry. Over the past several years, the business has evolved and transformed, keeping pace with the evolving digital economy and retail landscape in India and has developed a tech-enabled pan-India supply chain supported by a large footprint of infrastructure and cutting edge intelligence.
With its externalisation, eKart will now offer brands, platforms, and businesses end-to-end supply chain management, including dropship, inventory management, distribution, aggregation, and more, built on years of extensive experience.
In addition, through Jeeves – the services arm of Flipkart, it will provide end-to-end solutions (including installation, demo & repair services) for the after-sales needs of brands through its expert network of technical workforce across India.
By supporting businesses and managing the end-to-end cycle of fulfillment and after-sales seamlessly, eKart and Jeeves will enable brands and businesses of all sizes to focus on functions that are core to innovation and growth, and help support a vibrant digital commerce ecosystem in India.
eKart today has a growing network of Fulfillment Centers, Mother Hubs or sortation centers, and thousands of delivery hubs across the country, currently delivering close to 100 million shipments a month. Leveraging the best made-in-India technologies, including cross-belt sorters and automated guided vehicles to automatically sort shipments based on the pincodes, robotic arms, automated packaging and address intelligence for accurate and faster movement of shipments across the value chain, the business will extend its capabilities to small and medium businesses providing a trusted partner to their logistics requirements.
The suite of services provided by eKart across Cash on Delivery, QR based payment, Open Box delivery, Tech-visit and re-inventorization, will help serve brands, platforms and small and large businesses with all their fulfillment needs.
Hemant Badri, Senior Vice President, eKart, said, “As a homegrown group, we are committed to the growth of the digital economy in India, and a strong and dependable supply chain is integral to help businesses grow and scale. As a supply chain that has grown and evolved with the e-commerce industry, we understand the unique opportunities and challenges present in the Indian market and are agile to evolve with them to provide the most efficient delivery service for businesses. We are delighted to bring our deep expertise and capabilities to the small, medium and large businesses seeking to reach customers and clients across the country through our tech-driven dependable supply chain.”
Through its operations, the business employs more than 200,000 people directly or indirectly, across its operations. As an inclusive employer, eKart has a vibrant and strong women workforce, with specified shifts and operations run exclusively by women.
The company has a program called Vividhta that enables the active participation of women in its supply chain. At the same time, eKart also provides opportunities for people with disabilities to be meaningfully employed in the company. Environmental sustainability has been core to eKart and is manifested via the company’s commitment to a 100% transition to Electric Vehicles by 2030, 100% green packaging and moving towards solar energy for new facilities.
In addition, the repair and refurbishment operations of Jeeves help eliminate electronic waste from the ecosystem.