Flipkart shuts customer-to-customer delivery via Ekart to consolidate its supply chain arm

Flipkart is said to have shut down its customer-to-customer courier service after nine months of its launch. The announcement comes right after Ekart head Saikiran Krishnamurthy resigned from the company last month. “Beginning 5 February, Ekart no longer operates its customer-to-customer courier service started in May 2016, that gave people the option of having documents and parcels packed by Ekart’s delivery boys and shipped to end-addresses,“ said the company in a query to The Economic Times. With this move, the online marketplace is also looking at consolidating the business of Ekart Logistics and to “sharpen its focus on its core business model.” Flipkart had recently shut down its hyperlocal delivery service across Bengaluru which was launched in the month of March last year. Ekart is said to processes 30,000-40,000 orders a day for third-party businesses apart from the volumes that come from Flipkart and its fashion portal Myntra. It will continue its core ecommerce offerings, including third-party logistics services, Paytm and ShopClues as well as provide warehousing and fulfilment facilities to larger retail clients. Before exiting the company, Saikiran Krishnamurthy had mentioned half of Ekart’s business would come from servicing third-party players in the coming two years which accounts for only 10 percent of the business handled by the company.