In the year 2000, if you were sitting in a remote corner of India and wanted to place an order for something specific, chances were that you would not be able to get it unless someone sent a parcel in your name with your address on it. Circa 2023. No distance is too far any longer and a person located anywhere across the length and breadth of the country can aspire to get access to a wide range of products and services, thanks to e-commerce giants like Flipkart, who have a robust supply chain that covers a staggering 20,000 pin codes today.
India features amongst the fastest growing economies in the world today and e-commerce has acted as one of the major pillars of this growth. In this ecosystem, players such as Flipkart are acting as catalysts for change for lakhs of MSMEs, sellers, artisans and farmers in rural and small towns, who get an opportunity to showcase their products to more than one billion customers who use Flipkart, which has become a household name for online shopping in India.
Flipkart is strongly committed to create a strong and resilient seller ecosystem in India. The homegrown e-commerce marketplace has strengthened its supply chain and expanded its network to cater to the growing demands of more than 450 million consumers across the country.
Crafting digital growth story
Today, Flipkart delivers a wide range of products from lakhs of sellers across locations including Agra, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Moradabad, Panipat, Rajkot, Surat, Tirupur, and many other cities through its first-mile operations, in turn helping sellers place their products in world-class warehouses, providing services to keep inventory safe and secure so it reaches millions of customers in a timely manner.
It offers small businesses, artisans and weavers from remote locations a platform to showcase their wares and gain market access, without the need to create a wide range of products. “Flipkart has helped grow my business into what it is today, and in generating a greater revenue share with the help of the platform. Growing the business digitally with Flipkart’s assistance also meant that we can cater to consumers hailing from every nook and corner of the country. Our logistics needs have been met adequately through Flipkart’s supply chain expertise and has improved consumer experience while establishing greater trust in our brand. I am happy to say that we have gained more visibility through Flipkart and can offer our products to a wide range of markets,” said Bhavik Patoliya, Founder Qwera Enterprise.
Building a resilient supply chain to power growth
At the core of serving millions of customers across the country is a powerful supply chain network that enables the delivery of millions of shipments in different parts of the country each day. The supply network also helps sellers control and anticipate delivery timelines, which help sellers serve an enhanced customer experience.
“The supply chain is the backbone of businesses across the country. By utilising our logistics experience and extensive understanding of the pan-India market, we enable sellers to focus on their core business while being up-to-date on market developments and resilient in the face of any unforeseen disruptions. This further helps in creating new employment opportunities for lakhs of sellers across geographies, enables them to scale their businesses and promotes the growth of regional industries that contribute to the creation of strong local economies. Our technology-led supply chain is helping connect a million sellers with over 450 million consumers to deliver 120 million+ shipments each month” said Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart.
In order to help businesses scale and use the platform as a launchpad, Flipkart has integrated the supply chain dashboard with the seller’s marketplace sales to create a virtuous cycle that is predictable, and secure. Over the years, this model has helped thousands of sellers who sell their products through Flipkart to scale their businesses and earn more, thereby amplifying the power of digital commerce.
The Flipkart advantage
As India’s homegrown e-commerce player, Flipkart has deeply invested in a tech-enabled and vast network of supply-chain, which includes warehouses, a transport fleet, and the right expertise for the business. To cater to the diverse needs of a country like ours, Flipkart has created a unique supply chain that is powered by technology to minimise the effort and improve reliability.
In fact, the use of the right technology is core to Flipkart’s business and is used to create differentiated solutions, whether it is automated guided vehicles, or cross belt sorters or robot packing machines. This robust supply chain has played a pivotal role in boosting entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities for lakhs of local sellers, businesses and MSMEs across the country by bringing them into the digital ecosystem, providing national market access and reducing the cost of logistics.
Over the years, Flipkart has expanded its supply chain capabilities by leveraging the best made-in-India technologies and harvesting its learnings for accurate and faster movement of shipments across the value chain, resulting in significant cost savings. It has thus proven to be a trusted partner for the logistics needs of small and medium businesses.
Flipkart has also started utilizing Geocoding and Address Intelligence – an AI-backed and tech-centric solution that enables precise location of addresses for deliveries. With the help of route optimisations and dynamic planning, we are able to ensure reliable deliveries to customers while optimizing for cost and resources.
In the near future, one can expect more initiatives that will help build a low-cost supply chain which will bring down costs, improve accessibility and offer improved value for both sellers and consumers. These initiatives include sending more items together to manage orders with fewer resources, improving overall supply chain efficiency, dynamic rerouting of returned items to the next order in the supply chain, and expanding the dispersion of sellers and inventory across India in order to improve affordability and value provided to its seller community.
Disclaimer: This article is a promotional feature and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of Hindustan Times.