E-commerce logistics solutions provider Ecom Express Private Limited has announced an expansion of its services by 8000 PIN codes in India, thus, expanding its reach from 17,000 PIN codes to over 25,000.
In a statement, the company said that its network now covers 100% PIN codes in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. As part of the expansion, Ecom Express has opened new 800 delivery centers to cater to rural and remote locations of these eight states. The count of such centers has now reached 2500.
T.A. Krishnan, CEO & Co-founder of Ecom Express said that the company has seen the volume in tier 4 and rural locations rising and it only makes sense for it to focus expansion in these areas. He added that this expansion is a 50% increase from its existing network of serviceable PIN codes that were set up early last year.
The full-state coverage programme of Ecom Express was initiated in the year 2016 with the objective of opening doors for e-commerce in remote and rural locations of India. This expansion follows the earlier full-state coverage in Delhi, Haryana, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab which was completed last year.
Founded in 2012 by former Blue Dart employees T A Krishnan, K Satyanarayana, Manju Dhawan and Sanjeev Saxena, the company reportedly raised Rs 192 crore from its existing investor Warburg Pincus in September last year. Ecom offers end-to-end logistics solutions such as order fulfillment, reverse logistics, Ecom Network Services (ENS), cross-border services (EXS), Ecom Branded Services (EBS) to e-commerce companies. It also provides fulfillment solutions to its customers. Ecom Express’s clients include Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Voonik, Rediff, Limeroad, Paytm- to name a few.
Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group is investing $100 million in Pune-based logistics company XpressBees. E-commerce majors like Flipkart and Amazon are too strengthening their logistics power in the country. In January, Flipkart infused Rs 1,632.81 crore in Instakart Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates its logistics arm eKart. In November last year, Amazon India’s logistics arm Amazon Transportation Services (ATS) further received funding of Rs 130 crore from the US parent. ATS received Rs 207 crore worth of funding from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon Malaysia, in June, and before that, it had received Rs 67 crore in September 2016. Besides ecommerce players, there are players Locus, Delhivery, Rivigo, Loadshare, Blackbuck, and also NSE-listed Gati etc in this space.
