Delhivery to launch dark stores for e-commerce players

Delhivery founder and CEO Sahil Barua said the logistics unicorn will also provide e-commerce businesses with delivery services that will reduce the delivery cycle to 2-4 hours

Delhivery will set up dark warehouses for a few “narrow categories” and within them a set of narrow SKUs in the e-commerce sector that would require fast deliveries

Barua said multiple companies can use dark stores to share costs.

Delhivery plans to launch a network of multi-tenant dark stores enabling “fast city delivery” for e-commerce companies.

In a conference call after the earnings announcement, Delhivery founder and CEO Sahil Barua said the logistics unicorn will also offer delivery services to e-commerce businesses that will reduce the delivery cycle to 2-4 hours.

“…the intention is to…launch a network of shared dark stores that will be available for e-commerce businesses to use on a multi-tenant basis and then provide fast local delivery…” Barua said.

He said deliveries that take 30 minutes or an hour are unlikely to disrupt the broader e-commerce space. Only a few “narrow categories,” and within them a narrow set of SKUs, would require the service. Delhivery plans to set up dark stores for such categories.

He added that many e-commerce companies and D2C brands can leverage these dark stores to share costs.

“It’s basically the process of creating micro-fulfillment for most brands that sell directly to consumers…” he added.

(Story will be updated soon.)