E-tailers are adopting the hyper-local delivery strategy to minimize the time lag involved between in placing the order, actual delivery of the order and delivery costs too. For most e-tailers, tackling delivery issues still remains a critical area for staying ahead in the competition.
Last week, Amazon launched an “Amazon Chai Cart” that offers free refreshments and beverages to local business people, sellers and even owners of SMEs in Panchkula, Haryana under as pilot initiative driven by an Amazon trained employee. The sole motive in this initiative is to include local business people to undertake Amazon seller specific services such as Fulfillment by Amazon and Amazon Easy Ship while educating them about Amazon Seller Programme.
On similar lines, Flipkart has established training centres in small towns and non metro cities of India which in turn will help local merchants to sell products and promote business. These centres impart training in packaging, lending, manpower and its training, catalogue creation and other business promotional activities. The sole aim of these training centers is to boost local businesses in an organized manner.
Snapdeal too, has tied up with various regional handicraft boards, local manufacturers of artisan-based products across most states in India.
The current scenario involves a time lag of at least 3 – 4 days with Rs. 70 as the cost of delivery of per kg of shipment. Also, the warehouses are located in select cities across the country while nearly 3/4th of the customer base is located in small towns, cities and non metros spread over rural India. Hence, the need for having in place regional hubs to tackle fast and cost effective delivery does become extremely vital.
To get a fair idea of the number of sellers associated with these e-tailers, Amazon has tied up with 21,000 sellers, Snapdeal 100,000 sellers and Flipkart with nearly 30,000 sellers across their respective marketplaces.
LogicSpeak:
The most sustainable and viable delivery strategy of e-tailers required them to be located in proximity with the sellers and ensuring a fast pickup and delivery system which proves cost effective too.
