Flipkart to consolidate logistics play by opening up logistics services

Flipkart has thrown open its logistics services eKart to third-party e-commerce firms even as the company is gearing up to roll out an inter-city customer-to-customer courier service called eFlash in the next two months.

The e-commerce logistics service has already found takers such as online fashion store Jabong and online marketplace Shopclues (Clues Network); technical integration with Jabong is underway, while Shopclues will come on board in the next two weeks. eFlash is still in beta stage, currently available only to Flipkart employees in Bangalore, the people cited above said.

Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart for $330 million in May 2014, has already been using eKart’s logistics services since September last year. The company expects other e-commerce firms to adopt the services in a big way starting February.

eKart’s logistics service for third-party etailers will be pitched against well-funded e-commerce-focused logistics firms such as Delhivery, Ecom Express and Dotzot, the e-commerce focused arm of DTDC Express, among others. Other traditional logistics companies such as Gati , Blue Dart Express , Safexpress and Drive India Enterprise Solutions are all adding e-commerce verticals to their existing lines of businesses, given the exponential growth of e-commerce in India.

Online retail sales could touch between $48 billion and $60 billion by 2020 from $4.47 billion in 2014, according to a report by financial services firm UBS Group AG in April last year.