Shiprocket, a Logistics unicorn, is betting on quick deliveries by offline merchants to fuel its next level of growth. In August this year, the Gurugram-based company launched Shiprocket Quick, an on-demand local delivery solution, to enable offline merchants to meet consumer expectations for 2-hour to same-day deliveries in categories such as food, grocery, pet care, and electronics, among others.
“As consumer preferences continue to evolve, our MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) must be fully equipped to adapt and seize new market opportunities,” Saahil Goel, MD and CEO, Shiprocket, told FE.
The company said the response to the service has been good so far and Shiprocket Quick is currently serving over 2,000 active brands and merchants, including brands such as Kisan Konnect, Vijetha, Sardar Meat Shop, Vetic, Ferns & Petals and Bikanerwala.
The company is also focusing on enabling quick deliveries for exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in malls to help them reach a wider audience.
The company aims to onboard around 100,000 EBOs and offline merchants by FY26. Additionally, it plans to continue expanding to newer categories such as D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands and may also look at acquisitions to drive growth.
Goel said that the firm has been a big advocate of quicker delivery time. “If you look at our entire warehousing network, it was done to be able to build two-day delivery, same-day delivery and drone delivery for a lot of our customers. Today, same-day delivery has hit a meaningful number in the business, so we are simply making it even faster,” Goel said.
The company has a network of over 150,000 active sellers and an annualised GMV (gross merchandise value) of $3 billion.
Talking about the booming quick commerce space, Gautam Kapoor, COO, Shiprocket, said, “The idea behind our initiative is not to compete with 10-20 minutes delivery. Expecting a small shop, or even a large brand that’s selling fashion, etc, across high-street and malls, to have an inventory that enables delivery within a few kilometres does not make sense to them. What customers and sellers today expect is initiating the process within minutes for those categories. Then, the time they reach depends on the distance.”
The service is live in key cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kerala, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. The firm has no plans to expand the service to newer cities as of now and wants to focus on newer categories.
The startup believes that offering faster delivery options is correlated with a 10.5% uplift in conversion rates and an 8.9% increase in repeat purchases.
The company has partnered with courier services like Porter, Ola, Borzo, Rapido and Shadowfax to enable small businesses to compete effectively with larger e-commerce and quick commerce players. The startup will also continue to focus on its other emerging businesses such as Shiprocket Capital, Shiprocket Checkout, Shiprocket Cargo and cross-border commerce.
Shiprocket’s operating revenue jumped 20.8% to Rs 1,316 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,089 crore in the previous fiscal. However, losses widened to Rs 595 crore on the back of restructuring expenses.