Flipkart Group's logistics arm Ekart has officially opened its pan-India logistics network to external businesses, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. According to reports from Moneycontrol, this marks a significant expansion of Ekart's third-party logistics (3PL) business as Flipkart looks to monetise its logistics network beyond its captive e-commerce operations amid rising demand from brands for outsourced fulfilment and last-mile delivery. The expansion is being driven through a new franchise model and scaled, dedicated warehousing capabilities. Established in 2009, Ekart operates over Grade-A warehouses across over 20 locations and deploys more than 14,000 trucks daily, delivering across 15,000-plus pincodes nationwide. The company has been expanding its reach beyond traditional e-commerce operations to serve external businesses through this franchise model initiative.
Under the new franchise model, Ekart has operationalised over 300 outlets across Surat, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru. As reported by Moneycontrol, the company plans to expand this network to more than 1,000 outlets by the end of 2026, allowing small businesses to route shipments through its national network without needing to build their own logistics infrastructure. This franchise model represents a significant expansion of Ekart's service reach beyond its traditional e-commerce operations, providing external brands with access to established logistics capabilities without the need for independent infrastructure investment. Over the past few years, Ekart has built a growing portfolio of external customers across retail, MSMEs, D2C brands and B2B businesses, demonstrating strong demand for enterprise-grade logistics beyond the Flipkart Group. Through the franchise network, businesses gain access to Ekart's technology stack, including real-time shipment tracking and AI-powered address resolution, alongside Ekart's established delivery reliability across India.
Ekart's existing fulfilment centres have taken on a new role of feeding a network of dark stores or micro-fulfilment centres set up closer to consumers for Flipkart's quick-commerce app Minutes. According to Mint, these dark stores stock fresh categories such as dairy, vegetables and perishable, cold-chain items that Ekart's network had never handled before Minutes came along. Flipkart executives told Mint that they built this new layer without setting up a parallel logistics network from scratch, crediting the existing fulfilment-centre network for how quickly Minutes was able to scale. The numbers are substantial, with Ekart's shipment volumes for Flipkart and Myntra growing 25-30% year-on-year, while Minutes has expanded to over 1,000 dark stores across 130 cities in under two years. Bank of America estimated in June 2026 that Flipkart's daily active users stood at 85 million, with its fashion and lifestyle arm Myntra at 21 million.
External brands can now utilise over 1 million square feet of Ekart's dedicated warehousing space for end-to-end fulfilment. According to Moneycontrol, the logistics provider is adding further capacity across Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai to reduce delivery turnaround times by positioning inventory closer to end customers. Businesses will also gain access to Ekart's technology stack, which includes real-time shipment tracking and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered address resolution. The company is also deploying AI for demand forecasting to help brands optimise inventory placement, leveraging its established technology capabilities to serve external clients effectively. These facilities are designed to reduce delivery turnaround times by positioning inventory closer to end customers, while AI-powered demand forecasting helps brands optimise inventory placement and plan stock distribution more efficiently across regions.
For B2B customers, Ekart operates a dedicated hub network across India built for bulk freight and consolidated freight operations, serving sectors including automotive, engineering goods, FMCG, and retail. This network offers additional services including Open Box Delivery, where products are verified by the customer at the point of delivery, and Any Day Delivery, which gives customers flexibility on delivery scheduling. Ekart currently reaches more than 95% of Indian pincodes across over 80+ product categories, with the franchise model enabling businesses of all sizes to leverage one of India's largest logistics networks to serve customers more efficiently and reach markets across the country. The company processes 10 million shipments daily across 18,000+ pin codes, making it one of the highest-volume networks in India. According to Mint, Ekart treats fulfilment centres and dark stores as two ends of the same supply chain, allowing one network to serve both quick commerce and traditional e-commerce, with automation across its fulfilment centres climbing from a low base to 60-70% today, targeting 80-90% next year.
The launch comes as competition in India's third-party logistics market heats up, with e-commerce companies increasingly looking to monetise delivery and fulfilment infrastructure built for their own marketplaces. Established logistics players such as Delhivery and Xpressbees already offer end-to-end services to brands and enterprises, while demand from D2C brands and MSMEs for outsourced fulfilment continues to grow. As reported by Moneycontrol, Amazon has also stepped up its ambitions in the segment, launching Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) earlier this year, opening its freight, warehousing, fulfilment and transportation network to businesses beyond its marketplace. However, Meesho's logistics arm Valmo remains focused on serving the company's own seller ecosystem and is yet to open its network to external brands. Mani Bhushan, Chief Business Officer at Ekart, stated that thousands of retail, MSME, D2C and global brands have trusted Ekart's logistics network and technology to reliably scale their businesses across India, building on that experience to expand access through their franchise model and dedicated end-to-end fulfilment capabilities.
