Flipkart, seems to be working aggressively in order to consecutively launch one after another feature & vertical so as to maintain its stronghold in the market. And that’s obviously after, Amazon readying $5 Bn to invest in Indian operations.
Flipkart, now has launched 20 self pick-up stores called ‘experience zones’ in 10 cities for customers to collect their shipments at their own convenient time.
Flipkart plans to launch these centres in conjunction with its logistics arm Ekart.
The company said that this “alternate delivery model” is launched due to varied reasons. The key reasons being unavailability of customers during delivery, restricted entry of delivery boys into IT parks, gated communities and educational institutions which lead to customer dissatisfaction with the delivery process.
With these collection centres or experience zones the customers will be able to collect their shipments from nearest experience centre at their convenient time.
Flipkart however, sees this as an opportunity to expand to small towns and villages that can be served by such facilities. One such startup, storeking, introduces retailers in areas which are not tech savvy to an offline model where shopowners order online and sell a wide range of products offline.
“We believe this model is a resolution to customer unavailability issues, as it offers consumers a choice to adjust the delivery time and location according to their convenience,” said
According to Neeraj Aggarwal, senior director of delivery operations, Flipkart, getting logistics right is extremely crucial for ecommerce companies. He said, “Our efforts are focused on expanding delivery network without compromising on the customer service levels and expectations. This will also provide ecommerce entry to new cities and restricted entry zones.”
He also added that Flipkart is planning to offer several value added services like instant returns, spot trials, open box deliveries and exclusive product demos at these experience zones to enhance customer engagement in near future.
Presently, these experience Zones will be functional in cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Vellore, Gurgaon, Vadodara and Surat. Further, the company plans to increase the number of stores to 100 by March 2016.
Along with raising $700 Mn funds Flipkart also announced testing of its program for the launch of hyperlocal grocery business ‘f Qck’.
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