Infibeam Launches Infibeam Logistics; In-House Last-Mile Delivery Network

Ahmedabad-based e-commerce platform Infibeam has launched Infibeam Logistics (IL), an in-house last-mile logistics delivery system that will provide a quicker end-to-end shopping experience to customers on the company's website www.infibeam.com. The Transportation Management System platform will track and deliver products to customers and also enable detailed package tracking system along with the cash on delivery facility and other value added services to customers ordering on Infibeam.com.

In the first phase of launch, Infibeam has started delivering to customers in Delhi, Gurgaon (Haryana) and Noida (UP). The company will hire additional delivery agents and further expand the in-house logistics program to additional cities in the coming months.

Up until a month back, the company had only been using third party services like BlueDart, FedEx (AFL), Aramex, and others, but going forward it will use both its own delivery system as well as third party service providers. In cities where IL will be present, Infibeam will use its own network for deliveries and payment collection while in cities where the company doesn't intend to have IL at all; it will continue to make use of third party services. Also, for products which cannot be transported over bikes (like TVs), Infibeam will still use third party services for last mile delivery.

Founded in 2007, Infibeam has a selection of over 12 million products across books, media, lifestyle, gifts, electronics and automobiles. The company also offers its web-store technology and associated infrastructure as a service and today has 250 employees who are based out of offices in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

"We continue to build on our logistics platform and plan to extend this service to ten additional cities in the coming months including Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad among others," according to a company statement.

As of now, the IL platform is exclusively for Infibeam's in-house logistics requirements, but eventually the company will selectively open up this logistics software platform as a service to small and medium courier companies to manage and track packages for their own clients.

Earlier this year, in an exclusive interview with Techcircle.in, Vishal Mehta, CEO of Infibeam had mentioned that an e-com firm has the potential to become India's largest retailer by 2015. Infibeam had earlier launched Build a Bazaar, a do-it-yourself e-commerce platform for merchants and sellers that provides the necessary e-commerce technology and payment and data infrastructure to create a store.

The company also started shipping 'Phi', a touch screen tablet with a choice between Android and Windows operating systems and launched a daily deals section called Magic Box.