NEW DELHI: E-commerce platform Snapdeal has expanded its nationwide logistics network. It has by opened eight new centres at manufacturing hubs that are located across cities in India. The new centres are part of a pre-Diwali increase in capacity initiative to cater to the festive spike in volumes.

The new centres are located inside the manufacturing hubs at Bahadurgarh, Rajkot, Bhiwandi, Agra, Yamuna Nagar, Noida, Mathura, and Mumbai.

The expansion is part of a decentralised network designed by Snapdeal, where its centers are located within commercial hubs inside a city to ensure faster pickup of packets from the sellers. This has become all the more important due to Covid2019 related restrictions, which at times reduce the operating hours or prohibit weekend operations in some parts of the country.

These new centers will cater to manufacturers and sellers of decor and furnishing items like lights, curtains, bedsheets, kitchenware, and apparel including sarees and ethnic wear. All these items are expected to witness high festive sales volumes due to an increase in the number of Indians preferring to buy online for convenience and safety reasons.

Earlier this year, Snapdeal opened 15 logistics centres. With the new addition, the company now runs 23 logistics centres. Its logistics hubs offer dedicated facilities for the manufacturing units, including packaging of orders and online tracking for orders in transit and facilitate faster movement of packets.

According to a Snapdeal Spokesperson, “The additional logistics capacity comes ahead of the festive season sale when the volume of orders is higher. The new centres make the fulfillment process simpler for the manufacturer-sellers so that they can devote all their resources towards production.”

Snapdeal is aiming to add 5000 manufacturer-sellers on its platform this year. Most of these manufacturers produce and sell daily use products like steel and copper utensils, kitchen gadgets like food processors and fashion accessories like watches and wallets.