Offering products at a lower price is no longer the USP for e-tailers anymore. To cash on speed, the e-commerce majors started same day delivery. Though this service debuted months back, the triguni of Indian e-tailers, Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal offer products the same day at an additional fee and mostly to cosmopolitan customers.
Somehow, Flipkart isn’t still happy doing the same day delivery any more. It is now looking to earn big bucks by delivering products within 3 hours of ordering!
Though the plan is still in it’s infancy, Flipkart proposes to start delivering packages within the 3 hour time frame, full throttle in 6 months. Now that’s a major commitment and considering the vastness of each city, transit costs and time are a matter of concern. But however Sujeet Kumar of Flipkart feels otherwise, “The kind of data we have is much richer than, say Google Maps”
Attributing to a strong logistics, large warehouses and sufficient manpower of more than 12,000, Flipkart sure has an advantage. If Flipkart express delivery works better than planned, it will be back into the game, glorified.
Also the company is already churning out strategies to make this a reality and has started deploying technology that will help Flipkart take orders and track the delivery process in no time to ensure a speedy delivery!
Having it’s own Fashion take over deliver apparel in an hour in Delhi and Bangalore, Flipkart now wants to take it mainstream.
Such express deliveries have been Amazon’s territory for a long time now. Amazon USA offers grocery and other items the same day for prime customers at $5.99 and non-prime customers at $8.99. In India the price segregation is based on the price ranging from Rs.49 to Rs.149.
Promising speedy hour deliveries seems difficult just saying it, and executing it is quite a task. However, there are number of examples of Global e-Commerce companies already doing it successfully. Here are a few examples:
- Amazon Fresh has been doing a great job in Manhattan for $7.99 in just 60 minutes.
- eBay too started “delivery within an hour” by tying up with Best Buy, Target and Macy’s in some American cities.
- Walmart To Go has also reinforced the same strategy.
Flipkart seems to have figured out ways to outsource the task of delivering to e-kart and using it’s spun off WS Retail’s resources to it’s advantage.
And yes, with the whole team putting together your order and ringing your doorbell in 3 hours comes with a cost. And that’s the mystery yet. We need to see how exactly Flipkart will price such hourly or rather timely deliveries.
Just like 30 minute Pizza delivery, Sangeetha Mobiles too have been promising Bangaloreans a “47 minute delivery”. Reinforcing their beliefs in lucky numbers, Flipkart uses the number 6-10 like in the Big Billion Day Sale (which flopped though), Sangeetha Mobiles have been using the number 47 to churn out some luck. Though not hugely publicized, the scheme seems to have evoked Flipkart to re-work it’s delivery schedules.
Living in the world of instant noodles and instant messaging, instant delivery was just round the corner to please your shopping whims!
Just in case you’re wishing Flipkart adheres to the pizza strategy of “Get you’re package within 180 minutes or free”, then you’re on glue!
