New Delhi, Aug 21 (KNN) e-Marketplaces provide many benefits to the retail ecosystem like job creation and skills training, innovation ecosystem and access to MSMEs, said a senior Flipkart official adding that women and rural entrepreneurs build own brand and sell to new customers across the nation without stepping out of their workplace via e-marketplaces.

This was stated by CFO of Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd, Kalyan R Krishnamurthy while addressing the ‘e-Commerce India Conclave’ here recently.

Indian e-commerce industry is expected to spend an additional 500 to 1,000 million USD on Infrastructure, Logistics and Warehousing, leading to a cumulative spend of 950 to 1900 million USD till 2017-2020, according to an ASSOCHAM-PWC joint study released at the conclave. 

The total spend on warehousing and sortation centres could be as high as 3 to 6 per cent of top-line revenues, which represents an cumulative spend of over 450 to 900 million USD of spend in warehousing till 2017-2020.

The industry is expected to spend an additional 500 to 1000 million USD in the same period on logistics functions, leading to a cumulative spend of 950 to 1900 million USD till 2017-2020, according to a study titled, ‘Evolution of e-Commerce in India’.

The study estimates that over the next three to four years, there will be an addition of 7.5 to15 million square feet in the form of fulfilment centres indicating an additional 6 to 12 per cent of all the space available in the form of organised warehousing in India and almost 25 to 50 per cent of all incremental addition of consumption-driven warehousing space in the same period. 

To enhance the reach further, additional sorting and delivery centres will also be critical. Such additional centres with each measuring around 10,000 to 20,000 square feet will be added, said secretary general of ASSOCHAM, D S Rawat, while releasing the study.

Commenting on the report, Saurabh Srivastava, Director, Operations, PwC said, “The growth of the Ecommerce industry has a huge potential in the country translating into beneficial effects for the manufacturing industry, infrastructure and jobs. In our white paper we have tried to highlight the spill-over effect of the growth of Ecommerce on infrastructure and logistics investments which will include more warehouses, sortation and delivery centres and employment. The potential of the sector and the likely liberalisation in the form of FDI could be a vital factor in attracting significant investments resulting in better infrastructure and robust supply chains.”  

As per the study, currently, India operates at a very low level of air cargo penetration characterised by only a few airports equipped to handle large volumes of express delivery parcels. As the race to the market moves to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities a day may not be far off when there is an increasing demand of expanding air cargo connectivity to smaller towns through various merry-goes round aircrafts using charter airplanes and general aviation. Airport operators including the Airport Authority of India (AAI) needs to carefully evaluate this particular category of air cargo on par with other categories of airport infrastructure development. (KNN/SD)