Etailer adds 100 sellers to its smart fulfilment Kart
BENGALURU: In a push for short delivery times and ease of shipping for its gold and silver category sellers, online marketplace Flipkart has scaled up its Smart Fulfilment programme to include close to 100 sellers.
The move comes as Flipkart looks to consolidate its logistics arm Ekart to improve efficiency. The model, similar to Amazon India's EasyShip model, helps medium and large sellers pick, sort and pack orders at their warehouses before despatching them to the Flipkart supply chain.
Apart from speeding up delivery, such a service helps reduce the number of steps needed to ship an order, providing a cost benefit on logistics.
"We had launched the pilot with three sellers in the Big Billion Days Sale in October and presently cover over 100 sellers in three cities now. Over the next quarter, we plan on ramping this up to 10 cities across India," said Anil Goteti, head of marketplace for Flipkart.
The service, which includes inventory tracking, warehouse management, and consultation on warehouse layout, accessibility and planning, is provided by Flipkart currently free of cost to its sellers.
"The basic infrastructure the seller needs to invest in are warehouse racks and bins, a printer and few systems. The investment helps the seller improve efficiency of picking a product, reduce mistakes, thereby reducing returns. The return on investment is visible to sellers in six to eight months," said Goteti.
He said the service also helps upgrade the classification of sellers. The online marketplace ranks sellers in the gold, silver and bronze categories, based on number of orders as well quality of product and fulfilment criteria.
Sellers using this service are given the Flipkart Assured badge, typically reserved for those who park their inventory at Flipkart's warehouses for processing orders faster.
The move comes as Flipkart looks to consolidate its logistics arm Ekart to improve efficiency. The model, similar to Amazon India's EasyShip model, helps medium and large sellers pick, sort and pack orders at their warehouses before despatching them to the Flipkart supply chain.
Apart from speeding up delivery, such a service helps reduce the number of steps needed to ship an order, providing a cost benefit on logistics. "We had launched the pilot with three sellers in the Big Billion Days Sale in October and presently cover over 100 sellers in three cities now. Over the next quarter, we plan on ramping this up to 10 cities across India," said Anil Goteti, head of marketplace for Flipkart.
The service, which includes inventory tracking, warehouse management, and consultation on warehouse layout, accessibility and planning, is provided by Flipkart currently free of cost to its sellers.
"The basic infrastructure the seller needs to invest in are warehouse racks and bins, a printer and few systems. The investment helps the seller improve efficiency of picking a product, reduce mistakes, thereby reducing returns. The return on investment is visible to sellers in six to eight months," said Goteti.
He said the service also helps upgrade the classification of sellers. The online marketplace ranks sellers in the gold, silver and bronze categories, based on number of orders as well quality of product and fulfilment criteria.
Sellers using this service are given the Flipkart Assured badge, typically reserved for those who park their inventory at Flipkart's warehouses for processing orders faster.
