Flipkart is reportedly exploring ways to reduce delivery times to as little as three hours. The Indian ecommerce company is working on the logistics and evaluating the kind of products that can be a part of the initiative. It could introduce this service in three to four cities as early as July this year.
The customers are, of course, expected to pay extra for the services, but it is a service that could be used in emergencies. Flipkart currently offers same day delivery in 10 cities, for INR 140 (US$2.20) per item. It also requires you to place an order before 12:00 pm. Their ‘In-a-day guarantee’ service is available in 50 cities, where the customer receives the order the next day for INR 90 (US$1.42) per item.
To enable the three hour delivery, Flipkart’s retailers are expected to increase their number of warehouses and manpower. At present, the company owns 13 warehouses and over 12,000 employees helping with last-mile delivery.
Last year, Snapdeal offered same day delivery free of charge while Amazon India launched its own guaranteed one-day delivery. For INR 149 (US$2.35) per order Amazon customers can avail the same day delivery. INR 99 (US$1.56) per order guarantees the next-day delivery. But the ecommerce giant is capable of drastically reducing delivery times to one-hour like in Manhattan for Amazon Prime users.
Amazon is also working on introducing Prime to India. American Prime customers get access to more than 15,000 movies and TV shows and receive free two-day shipping. Last year, Flipkart launched Flipkart First, an annual subscription service which is similar to Amazon Prime.
Heavy competition in the Indian ecommerce space is pushing companies to introduce new features. Customers are set to be the winners.
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