Excl: Rocket Internet-backed Jabong's in-house logistics now delivers for other retailers too

Popular lifestyle and fashion etailer Jabong.com has finally admitted its foray into independent logistics services. After much talk about its in-house logistics and the possibility of it becoming an independent offering,  Jabong finally ventured into logistics a few weeks back.

Praveen Sinha, co-founder and MD of Jabong, confirmed to Techcircle.in that the company has started the service, but said it is not yet pushing it aggressively .

"Yes, we have begun the logistics services for other merchants but we are not yet actively engaging in it. It is more like people coming to us rather than we promoting it," he said.

Sinha said its logistics operation has been launched as a separate service JaVAS, a short form for Jabong Value-Added Services. JaVAS  is independent from Jabong in operations. It has a separate team and doesn't use Jabong's resources like warehouses, etc. Sinha said JaVAS covers around 35-40 cities and a majority of its customers are e-commerce players, though there are some offline players as well.

"It is a premium service, though not superbly expensive, but still a premium one," Sinha added.

He didn't share names but one of firms using its service is jewellery e-tailer Youshine.in.

JaVAS is doing end-to-end logistics for third-party merchants which includes services like warehousing, end-mile delivery and reverse logistics apart from offering ERP and IT consultancy for merchants, Sinha added.

On the strategy behind this move, Sinha said,"We were always open to this idea since beginning. The thought was always there and we never designed our logistics, thinking it will remain in-house only. However, that said, we were not actively looking out. Because of the service and experience that our customers felt, we started getting inquiries from some businesses. That is how it all began."

Getting aggressively into the sector will depend on how much pull it can generate for the services, Sinha said.

Jabong is one of the few e-commerce players which have their own logistics services, like Flipkart. Most e-commerce players have tied up with third-party firms for logistics.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)