Flipkart's Asia’s largest fulfilment centre to process a million shipments a day during BBD

• Flipkart's upcoming Big Billion Day sale is expected to be the biggest sale so far.
• The e-commerce giant's new facility centre near Kolkata, which is allegedly Asia's largest fulfilment centre, will play a key role in amping up its storage capacity.
• Flipkart is hiring 400-500 people every day at Haringhata to prepare for its flagship sale. It will also launch three new big-box facilities in three years to cater to growing demand.

Flipkart's new big-box fulfilment centre located 50 kilometres away from Kolkata at Haringhata is seeing furious activity as the e-commerce giant ramps up preparations for its flagship Big Billion Days sale (BBD).

Evidence of that is most visible at the Haringhata fulfilment centre, which was officially inaugurated in April this year. It has over 3,000 employees and is hiring at least 400 new employees every day and can house 11,000 employees at once.

Called the big-box centre, it’s spread across 110 acres, has 5 million cubic feet of storage. Flipkart claims that it is one of Asia’s largest facilities.

With the new centre, Flipkart now has over 210 lakh square feet of warehousing space now, the highest ever, which will enable faster deliveries during the festive rush. During its flagship sale, Flipkart's big box plans to process a million shipments from across the country at Haringhata.

Consumer sentiment to pick up this festive season

Hemant Badri, senior vice president and head of supply chain, Flipkart Group said that they are extremely bullish about the upcoming BBD sales as they expect people to come out in full force and buy after the pandemic.

The festive season is also important for e-commerce companies as a lot of new users come onboard for the first time due to discounts or exclusive selections, Badri said.

This year, on an industry level, 40-50 million new users are expected to come onboard. A majority of them could be from Tier III and IV towns. Badri is optimistic about seeing healthy growth across categories, led by non-metro regions.

"The consumer sentiment towards the festive is very positive, and this includes (for) a good mix of all categories including mobiles, large appliances, fashion, furniture, home improvement products and you name it. Our teams are working very closely with sellers and brand partners to bring the selection and offerings as per consumer demand," said Badri.

With close to 20,000 sellers, West Bengal is a crucial region for Flipkart. Sellers from West Bengal primarily engage in kid's and men's clothing, mobile and fashion wearables, skincare, etc.

Targeting the next 200 million customers

"This year, it should be better for us from every aspect. With our storage combined with automation, our productivity has gone up 15-20%. We're far more bullish for the next 200 million customers in India to shop with us. Three out of five orders are from Tier II and III regions," Hemant Badri, senior vice president and head of supply chain, Flipkart Group said.

Flipkart hit the first 100 million registered users milestone in 2018, more than a decade after its establishment in 2007. It has more than 400 million registered users today on the platform and now aims to fulfil the demands of its next target 200 million customers.

Flipkart has over 80 facility centres in India and to cater to the next 200 million customers, it is planning to add three more big-box facilities, Badri said, in the next three years across North, South and West India.

It has already added several large-scale fulfilment and sortation centres over the last three years across Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal.

This, along with thousands of delivery hubs added across the country, are helping deliver shipments across 100% serviceable PIN codes.