Flipkart's logistics arm 'eKart' to deliver products for other retailers

Indian e-commerce major Flipkart will begin to deliver packages for other sellers by letting its in-house logistics arm eKart to provide services to other vendors, The Economic Times reported citing co-founder & CEO Sachin Bansal.

eKart, which was created as a separate brand last April, was till now being used only for in-house logistics services. It is currently running a pilot programme with a few partners and intends to roll out these services in the next few weeks. As of now, eKart reaches consumers in about 150 cities.

It is not yet clear if Flipkart plans to deliver products only for other vendors on its marketplace or also for other e-tailers. Flipkart has last year integrated a marketplace to its existing e-com site through which other vendors sell their products to consumers.

It would join other firms such as Amazon and Jabong which deliver for other vendors. While Amazon is a full-fledged marketplace and also operates its own logistics services in India to deliver some of the products sold through its platform, Jabong's in-house delivery services unit also provides logistics services to others.

The move is part of Flipkart's overall plan to diversify its business portfolio. Last year, it launched an online payment gateway solution PayZippy that allows customers to save their credit card details. This service is now used by other online companies as well.

eKart is part of WS Retail Services, which is Flipkart's in-house vendor and was the sole seller through Flipkart before it turned into a marketplace.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)