DHL Supply Chain expands network in India

DHL Supply Chain on Wednesday said it has expanded its India fulfilment network (IFN) to three new cities including Delhi and Mumbai and has invested Rs 25 crore in capacity building through such facilities. The global contract logistics services provider had launched its first fulfilment network in Bengaluru in September last year.

IFN is an omni-channel offering which will enable pan-India e-commerce order fulfilment with use-cases ranging from a single warehouse set-up to dynamically linked multiple micro-fulfilment centers allowing brands to choose a suitable strategy for fulfilling orders from their online shoppers, the company said.

The e-commerce market in India is expected to be $74.8 billion by the end of 2022 and projected to grow at around 35 percent to $188 billion by 2025.

This shift has been facilitated by the movement of both buyers and sellers onto online channels, the company said in a release.

Relatedly, the expansion of e-commerce and third party logistics sectors is also fuelling demand for new warehousing space, which is expected to increase by 160 percent over last year, it noted.

DHL Supply Chain at present fulfils over 1,00,000 orders every day from its e-commerce operations in India, as per the company.

It has expanded its IFN to Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Delhi, in line with the company’s focus to support growth of the domestic e-commerce ecosystem by expanding its infrastructure and services for the sector, it said.

Till date, the company has invested over Rs 25 crore in capacity building through IFN, it added.

“Building on the success of IFN in Bengaluru, brands and organisations can utilise our footprint across India to empower their omni-channel sales via a state-of-the-art plug and play model that will perform a vital role in boosting their overall business,” said Vikas Anand, Managing Director, DHL Supply Chain, India.

Using IFN not only reduces delivery times, but also helps avoid long distance shipments across the country, thereby reducing CO2 emissions occurring from transport, he noted.

In line with this, IFN is designed to be a launch pad curated for easing the B2C fulfilment process. It is a 360-degree supply chain solution for enterprises across sectors, allowing them to manage their fulfilment operations seamlessly in a fully online marketplace scenario, the company said.

In addition to this, IFN also offers carrier agnostic transportation network linkages to brands and companies desiring to sell online, providing them with last mile delivery services to further bolster their independent models, it stated.

The company said its strategically located sites, in proximity to major urban centers, will cater to sectors like fashion, apparel, accessories, cosmetics, consumer electronics, among others.

According to DHL Supply Chain, companies have experienced a 20 per cent increase in business gained online, due to quicker fulfilment and deliveries. IFN’s model enables merchants to directly sell their products across the whole country and be closer to online buyers, leveraging DHL Supply Chain’s network without having to make large investments in infrastructure and IT while providing end-to-end visibility of the operations, it emphasised.