Snapdeal reported that they are adding logistic centers in different parts of the country. On Wednesday the company said that they had added eight new logistics centers, including in places like Mathura, Noida, and Mumbai. The centers are added just before Diwali to expand their reach.
The company provided statement states that all the centers are added in their decentralized network. All the centers are in commercial hubs. The step was taken so that it facilitates faster pickup of packets from the location, making the deliveries faster and easier.
The company’s statement adds that due to the recent COViD-19 pandemic which has made service hard because of the reduced accessibility in several parts of the country. Also, there are several restrictions by different governments in different parts of the country that need to be followed. Some affect the working hours, whereas others add prohibit weekend operations, which pose a problem for deliveries. The added, “The new centers are located inside the manufacturing hubs at Bahadurgarh, Yamuna Nagar (Haryana), Rajkot (Gujarat), Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Agra, Noida, Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Mumbai.”
The company added them to expand their network to cover small towns in key markets like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, etc. They also report that this expansion will now facilitate it’s product delivery service as it will add more numbers of pin codes in places like Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland.
The upcoming festive season, Diwali, adds a spike as the company sees increased volumes of orders. They added these logistic centers to make managing orders during that time easier.
The recent coronavirus pandemic will definitely add to the number of orders of the company. Many in the country are turning to e-commerce for their shopping for not only it’s added convenience but also its safety.
The statement of the online retailer says, “These new centers will cater to manufacturers and sellers of decor and furnishing items like lights, curtains, bedsheets, kitchenware, and apparel, including sarees and ethnic wear. All these items are expected to witness high festive sales volumes due to an increase in the number of Indians preferring to buy online for convenience and safety reasons.”
Previously, in the early parts of this year, the company added 15 logistics centers. This addition to that list makes for a total of 23 logistics center for the company.
Dedicated facilities for the manufacturing units are seen in these units. They include packaging of orders and online tracking for orders in transit and facilitate faster movement of packets.
A Snapdeal spokesperson’s comment was published by Yahoo finance where he said, “The additional logistics capacity comes ahead of the festive season sale when the volume of orders is higher. The new centers make the fulfillment process simpler for the manufacturer-sellers so that they can devote all their resources towards production.”
“The network expansion is a logical next step of our leadership in Bharat-focused e-commerce. This growth in our reach reflects the vast potential of value-focused e-commerce in our country and we plan to add more areas to our network in 2020,” brandequity.com reported a Snapdeal spokesperson.
The addition of the new centers will add to the growing shipment volumes that the company expects to have during Diwali. It is a “pure-play” setup i.e. the manufactures opting to sell directly on Snapdeal during this season will be benefitted by these added centers. The company says that this addition will help them as they can now make products available in the platform directly, bypassing, or supplementing the traditional structure of selling through wholesalers and retailers. This would save both time and money adding profits to the sellers and the company.
The online e-commerce platform has more than 5 lakh registered sellers across the country with more than 220 million product listings.
The company said that the number of sellers who produce the products themselves and sell it on the platform has increased over the years. Before the end of the year, the company aims to add more 5,000 manufacturer-seller in its platform. Most of these self manufacturers and sellers are those who transact in products like steel and copper utensils, kitchen gadgets such as food processors, and fashion accessories.
The pandemic period saw a rapid increase in seller registration. According to Snapdeal, about 10,000 sellers registered in its platform during this period. In the last 18 months, the company added 75,000 more sellers. The company is one of the oldest competitors in the eCommerce segment in the country competing with giants like Amazon and Facebook. Almost 90 percent of the customer that uses the platform comes from non-metro cities.
The company’s strong network reach makes them capable to deliver products in the farthest parts of the country within 3 to 7 business days. They work with leading logistics providers of the country such as Xpressbees, Bluedart, Delhivery, Ecom Express, Shadowfax, FedEx, and Gati. Recently, a machine-learning-based system was also initiated by the company enabling them to choose the right shipping partner for each delivery much simple.