Ecom Express opens warehouses in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Lucknow

New Delhi: E-commerce logistics company Ecom Express has launched its order fulfilment services with the opening of three new warehouses in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Lucknow.

The fully automated facility in Gurgaon, the largest, covers an area of ​​500,000 square feet, while the other two are around 40,000 square feet each.

As a new business, the company will offer inventory management, order fulfillment, packaging and shipping services from these facilities.

“The reason for opening fulfillment centers is to provide end-to-end solutions to e-commerce customers,” said Sanjeev Saxena, co-founder and director of Ecom Express. Until now, the company was only involved in last-mile deliveries.

Saxena said his company plans to open at least seven large and 20 small warehouses. Each large facility will cost Rs 40 crore. Two large warehouses of around 200,000 sq ft — one 100-150 km from Mumbai and the other about the same distance from Bengaluru — will come up this year.

“The target is to reach anywhere in India by road within two days,” he said.

Ecom Express delivers up to 11,000 PIN codes throughout the country. It serves approximately 1,200 delivery centers (800-1,500 m2 each) and 33 transit hubs (5,000-30,000 m2 each).

With the exception of giants like Flipkart and Amazon, which run their own fulfillment centers, e-commerce companies outsource much of their warehousing and order management to third-party logistics companies like Delhivery, Blue Dart, Gati and DTDC.

Delhivery, Ecom Express’s biggest competitor, operates 11 fulfillment centers across the country.

Opening a fulfillment center is a logical extension of the delivery business, Saxena said, because it allows customers to store products and manage inventory and shipping without having to own infrastructure.

Not only does it reduce costs for the e-tailer, but it also speeds up delivery processing because the packages stay with the supplier who delivers. Fulfillment centers also serve as zoning centers for delivery companies to manage their own shipments.

For billing, Ecom Express will charge customers for storing goods, managing their orders through its software and packaging. Parcels may then be delivered by Ecom Express or another third party supplier.

Saxena also added that with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), consumer goods companies will look for larger warehouses.

“With GST, there will be a lot of warehouse consolidation and players will need large facilities. These facilities are available with us.” he said, adding that the company will focus on customers in the auto spare parts, fashion retail (Jabong and Myntra) and large online retailers for its warehouse offerings.

Ecom Express and Delhivery, apart from Flipkart-owned Ekart, are among the largest courier companies in India that focus on e-commerce. In June 2015, Ecom Express raised Rs 850 crore from private equity firm Warburg Pincus, a month after Tiger Global Management infused Rs 542 crore into rival Delhivery.