Flipkart teams up with Mumbai Dabbawalas to Deliver Parcels
According to a latest report by Reuters, Flipkart has now teamed up with the Mumbai Dabbawalas (Tiffin Services/Carriers) in order to ensure efficient and timely delivery of packages in the city that never sleeps. Mumbai is one of the most populated and busiest cities in the world; therefore management is always an issue. Couple that with a bad weather or a ‘traffic problem’ and it doubles the chances of the order being misplaced or delivered on the wrong address. In a city of this kind and stature, it is only the Dabbawalas who have shown excellent co-ordination, mastered precision and timely delivery of the tiffins across the city. Over millions of deliveries that they have made every single day, they have rarely faltered or failed. They have been awarded not only by the state government, but also applauded by the world for their crisp management and dedication.
The Flipkart team has been smart enough to realize a business opportunity here and have struck gold. If you live in Mumbai, you will now find your Dabbawala not only bringing you your tiffin at work but also that watch, mobile, t-shirt and every other item you ordered on Flipkart the other day. With such a large change in its delivery methods and with the amount of time Flipkart can save with this deal, it’s no surprise that could now have an upper edge over its fierce rivals from the online shopping industry. While Amazon is now trying to get a lot of small time businessmen to join it and sell their products online; Flipkart has attempted to up its delivery services here. This also works as a fantastic method for PR and marketing. Since the dabbawalas will be walking around on the roads of Mumbai with these Flipkart delivery packages, it gets everyone to notice it. Plus, one doesn’t have to work about the accuracy of the delivery since the dabbawalas are a class apart when it comes to that.
Well, all we have to say is that after the Airtel ‘Ground Zero’ fiasco, Flipkart finally seems to be in news for the right reasons. Well played!