Smaller cities accounted for 55 per cent sales of giant e-tailers in India in 2014, up from 40 per cent two years ago.
Flipkart, India's largest online retail, said that it will open 270 collection centres in smaller cities by the end of March 2017 in a bid to tap the opportunities lying in these cities, according to a report published by Economic Times.
The Bangalure based retail firm is likely to commence the project in April this year.
"So we can have a lot of people from tier-4 or tier-5 cities coming and collecting their stuff if we set up pickup centres," Sujeet Kumar, Head - WS Retail and ekart Logistics, told ET.
WS Retail, the the logistics and delivery arm of Flipkart and ekart delivers 85 per cent of Flipkart's goods in 300 cities across India.
"You cannot develop a hub network for such areas. Pickup centres will work for such areas. We may start with 20 cities in the first half of the year. Scaling up is very fast. In a year and half I can open centres in 250 more cities if the response is good," Kumar further told ET.
Smaller cities accounted for 55 per cent sales of giant e-tailers in India in 2014, up from 40 per cent two years ago. This growth is attributed the increasing disposable income and lack of branded goods in tier II and III cties.
This initiative by Flipkart indicates that it is following the similar model of its peers in other price sensitive nations like France, Germany and China.
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