'We can now deliver 'In-a-day' as a guaranteed service': Ravi Vora, VP marketing, Flipkart

E-commerce major Flipkart has launched a new service - next day guaranteed delivery service - which facilitates delivery of order at shoppers’ doorstep within 24 hours. The service will cost additional Rs. 90 and is available in seven cities, including Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.

The launch of premier service comes on the heels of world’s largest e-tailer Amazon’s roll out of premier shipping service in India earlier this week. Previously, Myntra did pilot for shipping orders in less than an hour in select areas of Bangalore and New Delhi in August this year.

Speaking about the reasons behind launch of premier shipping service, Ravi Vora, senior VP, Marketing, Flipkart said, “We had a lot of customers requesting urgent deliveries for reasons ranging from occasion-led gifts to pre-travel shopping. But given the large volumes that we handle it wasn’t feasible to address them on a case-to-case basis. We have now built the capability into our supply-chain and can now offer it as a guaranteed feature.”To gain more perspective behind launching such service, YourStory spoke to Ravi Vora. He talked about the effort required to streamline Flipkart’s supply-chain at various places for the service, including how it will leverage its own supply chain and logistics infrastructure for premier shipping. He also revealed that the company is ahead than halfway towards attaining its goal of $1 billion GMV by 2015.

Edited excerpts:

YS: How will Flipkart leverage its supply chain infrastructure in the process?

Ravi: This service has been in the works for some time. However, to offer a guaranteed service of this nature required us to streamline our supply-chain at various places which has taken some time and effort. In addition of our own capability, Flipkarts’ logistics partner will be handling the delivery for our In-A-Day Guarantee orders as well.

YS: Is Flipkart extending premier shipping service to all sellers?

Ravi: We are piloting this with select sellers. Once we learn and fix any potential issues that may arise during the initial days, we should be able to provide this as an option to all sellers who work with us.

YS: How has 2013 been for Flipkart in terms of business growth?

Ravi: This year has seen huge growth in the Indian e-commerce market and Flipkart has continued to maintain its leadership. We are clear market leaders when it comes to consumer electronics and books. According to Nielsen Book Scan Retail Panel data, Flipkart alone, in this year, holds an average of 40% - 45% in terms of value when it comes to the organized books market in India. We are fast gaining leadership in lifestyle and we have just launched an exclusive women’s store on our site.

We also launched our marketplace and PayZippy, an online payments solution. Today, we already have more than 600 sellers on the Flipkart. This year also saw us raising the single biggest round of funding by any Indian internet company - $360 million. We are more than halfway towards attaining our goal of $1 billion GMV by 2015.YS: When will you extend this service to other cities?

Ravi: We do not have a fixed timeline at present. But the aim is to scale up pretty rapidly to other cities.