Logistics

Ecommerce major Flipkart dispatches over a million shipments across the country every month. This Walmart-owned
online marketplace ensures seamless delivery and for that Logistics is one of the most important facets, Furthermore,
the cost of the delivery is born by Flipkart itself. Hence in order to successfully manage its logistics division, Flipkart,
uses its in-house logistics known as “ËKart”. Flipkart created E-Kart in April 2013, as a separate brand to serve WS-
Retail, the B2C side of Flipkart. Currently, E-Kart offers services like delivery logistics, reverse logistics and pay on
delivery along with customer support and technology integration for order tracking, customer notifications, reporting
and analysis, billing etc. and it has a reach in about 150 cities.
Thought over 60% of the Flipkart’s shipments are delivered by E-Kart there are various shipments that are catered by
3PL. In case of E-Kart Logistics, the shipment is first transported to Mother hub and then to a delivery hub and
subsequently from that delivery hub the last mile delivery is done using the suitable mode of transport such as two-
wheelers or four wheelers. The company has tie-ups with over fifteen logistics companies like Blue Dart, First Flight
etc. to deliver their products and also Indian post for areas where these couriers do not reach. The delivery time of the
shipments varies between 3 days to 3 weeks depending upon the location as well as the availability of the product.
Reverse Logistics
Flipkart offers 2 kinds of return policy, replacement within 10 days of delivery for all electronics and refund/
replacement/ exchange within 30 days of delivery for the lifestyle category. When a customer requests return of a
product, there are 2 paths this request can take:
Refund – A refund is given online to the customers against the payment made by them after the product has been
collected.
Replacement - Flipkart returns the merchandise to the provider & obtains a replacement that’s delivered to the
customer.
Procurement
When Flipkart had started of its operations, they had employed the consignment model of procurement. In this model,
the retailer, here Flipkart, holds the inventory owned by the supplier, and buys it from the supplier only when it is sold
to the end consumer. But later it switched to Marketplace Model, now Flipkart no longer has an inventory of its own,
rather buyers can deal with sellers directly and the delivery will be done by Flipkart. The procurement is done for:
Inventory: The products are pre-ordered based on previous sales data to stock as inventory. This category includes
items with relatively low demand elasticity, fast selling items and items with relatively long shelf life.
Just in-time: Items procured just-in-time are used to serve immediate outstanding orders. Items with low or
unpredictable demand are typically procured on an order-to-order basis.
Warehouse Management System
Currently, Flipkart has 7 major warehouses spread across India in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Noida,
Pune, Chennai and Bangalore. They have smaller regional distribution centres at over 500 locations spread across Tier
I and high-volume Tier II cities. The Warehouse Management System of Flipkart:
 Inward Processing
1. Physical Inwarding – this is the part where the delivery f goods from suppliers to warehouse takes place.
2. Quality Check – After the goods are received, they are sent through a process of Quality Check, after that they
scanned to make an electronic entry into the warehouse on the IT systems.
3. Pre-Packing of Products – here, an initial & basic packing is done for the product is done that varies on the type
of good.
 Storage Management
1. Put-List Generation – when the goods are scanned after quality check, they are given a code and a specific place
to be stored.
2. Closing Put-List – once the product is placed at its respective place it is updated with the placement information.
3. Order Pending Check – as the system gets the input for any order, the respective products, from their placement
shelves, are sent to Outdoor Processing.
 Outward Processing
1. Final Packaging – here, the products are packed in the Flipkart branded boxes along with packaging necessities.
2. Delivery Hub Bags – once the products are packed, they are segregated and placed in specific bags that will
deliver the products at one common destination.
Inventory Management
Flipkart employs First In First Out (FIFO) method for its Inventory Management, this is also necessary for electronic
items as technology gets outdated very quickly. For determining what items to store in warehouse and what to procure
directly from the supplier, Flipkart uses Long Tail Concept, which is selling unique items at small quantities forwhich,
orders are placed on ad hoc basis & doesn’t keep inventory due to less demand hence, reducing the inventory cost

-By Kshitij Sharma 19PGDM024