Ekart, the supply-chain arm of the Flipkart group, has opened its pan-India logistics network to external businesses, including MSMEs, direct-to-consumer brands and FMCG companies. The expansion is being driven through a franchise model, dedicated warehousing capacity and access to Ekart’s technology stack, including real-time shipment tracking, AI-powered address resolution and demand forecasting tools.
The company has operationalised more than 300 franchise outlets across Surat, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, and plans to expand the network to more than 1,000 outlets by the end of 2026. The model is designed to let smaller businesses route shipments through Ekart’s national network without building their own logistics infrastructure. External brands will also be able to use more than 1 million square feet of dedicated warehousing space for end-to-end fulfilment.
Ekart is adding further warehousing capacity across Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, with the aim of positioning inventory closer to customers and reducing delivery turnaround times. The company said its technology stack will help brands with shipment visibility, address accuracy and inventory planning. Mani Bhushan, Ekart’s chief business officer, said the expansion builds on the company’s experience serving retail, MSME, D2C and global brands across India.
The move turns a historically captive ecommerce logistics capability into a broader third-party infrastructure platform. Ekart already operates Grade-A warehouses across more than 20 locations, deploys over 14,000 trucks daily and delivers across more than 15,000 pincodes nationwide. That footprint gives it a base from which to compete for logistics demand beyond Flipkart’s own marketplace and affiliated commerce flows.
The expansion is notable because Indian D2C and MSME brands increasingly need national fulfilment reach without the fixed costs of building independent warehousing, line-haul and last-mile networks. For brands operating across marketplaces, owned websites and offline channels, logistics reliability and inventory placement have become core operating levers. AI-enabled address resolution can be especially material in India, where incomplete, non-standard or ambiguous addresses often affect delivery efficiency.
Ekart’s decision also intensifies competition in the third-party ecommerce logistics market, where players are combining warehousing, last-mile delivery, returns management, shipment tracking and software-led fulfilment analytics. By opening its infrastructure to external businesses, Ekart is attempting to convert scale, data and operating density into a platform business that can serve brands across categories and geographies.
