DHL Supply Chain announced the expansion of its India Fulfilment Network (IFN) from its first location in Bengaluru to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Delhi, to support the growth of the Indian e-commerce ecosystem as well as to fuel the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by expanding its infrastructure and services.
DHL has invested over ₹25 crores in capacity building through the IFN.
An omnichannel offering, IFN enables pan-India e-commerce order delivery with use-cases ranging from a single warehouse setup to multiple micro-fulfillment centers allowing brands to choose a suitable strategy for supplying orders from their online shoppers.
“With our IFN, brands, and organizations can utilize our footprint across India to empower their omnichannel sales via a state-of-the-art plug and play model, that will perform a vital role in boosting their overall business.”
Vikas Anand, managing director, DHL Supply Chain, India
With this facility, SMEs will be able to focus on the manufacturing-their core area of activity, rather than being worried about the warehousing of their products and delivery which DHL Supply Chain would take care of for a fee.
“Using IFN not only reduces delivery time but also helps avoid long distance shipments across the country, thus reducing CO2 emissions occurring from transport,” he added.
He said companies had experienced a 20% increase in business gained online, due to quicker fulfillment and deliveries.
“IFN’s model enables merchants to directly sell their products across the whole country and be closer to online buyers, leveraging our network without having to make large investments in infrastructure and IT while providing end-to-end visibility of the operations,” he added.
Highlighting that the e-commerce market in India is expected to grow to $74.8 billion by the end of 2022 and projected to grow by 35% to $188 billion by 2025, DHL believes this shift had been facilitated by the shifting of buyers and sellers to the online channels.
It said the expansion of e-commerce and 3PL sectors was creating demand for new warehousing space, which was expected to increase by 160% over last year.
DHL Supply Chain said its sites located in proximity to major urban centers would cater to sectors like fashion, apparel, accessories, cosmetics, and consumer electronics. It currently delivers more than 1,00,000 orders every day from its e-commerce operations in India.
