Logistics companies get festive-ready

Logistics and supply chain companies are gearing up for a 20-40% increase in festive sales, driven by pent-up demand. To capitalize on this, players like Shiprocket, Porter, and Zippee are enhancing their tech, hiring gig workers, and expanding their reach to Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Logistics and supply chain companies expect a 20-40% increase in festive sales this year, fuelled by pent-up demand. To make the most of it, many players such as Shiprocket, Porter, Hexalog, Zippee, Shadowfax, among others, have enhanced tech capabilities, hired gig workers, trained and increased the fleet size. Some of them have specifically heightened their focus on Tier 2, 3 cities that have been outpacing metros in festive e-commerce growth.

Strategic Preparations for Peak Demand

Logistics unicorn Shiprocket has upgraded its warehousing infrastructure with AI-driven inventory and demand forecasting systems. On the merchant enablement side, it is rolling out tools like Co-pilot, Shunya.ai, Sense AI, MCP and RevProtect to help merchants capture festive demand. “This festive season, we anticipate one of the strongest demand surges in recent years, driven by rising consumer confidence and accelerated adoption of online shopping in Bharat,” Atul Mehta, CEO, Domestic Shipping, Shiprocket, said.

Specific measures are being taken to cash in on the quick commerce demand while also continuing to focus on e-commerce delivery and direct deliveries for large enterprises, MSMEs and D2C startups. “Quick commerce is brutal. It’s not like ‘oh volumes went up a bit.’ It literally doubles overnight. If you don’t prepare, the system just collapses.

The Critical Role of Quick Commerce and Last-Mile Delivery

At Zippee, we have learnt the hard way that you can’t switch this on in October. You start in July. We open more dark stores, even if it hurts short-term margins. A 200 sq. ft. store can move more volume than a supermarket during Diwali week, but only if it exists in the first place,” Madhav Kasturia, founder and CEO, Zippee, said. Since July this year, the firm has opened 45 new dark stores in 13 cities to cater to the festive rush. Zippee enables same-day and 2-hour deliveries for brands such as Supertails, Clinikally, The Whole Truth, Mondelez, Traya, UltraHuman and Haldiram’s.

Most logistics and supply chain startups are also over-hiring riders and operations executives by 20–30%. “Yes, it’s expensive. But if you miss an order of kaju katli during Diwali, that customer is gone forever,” Kasturia added. The firm has hired more than 700 store associates and 1000 gig riders in recent months.

Allcargo Supply Chain has expanded its team by 30%, with over 9,000 blue-collar employees managing operations. The firm claims that it has put in place performance-linked incentives and well-being measures to ensure peak productivity. It has also created a centralised monitoring system to ensure agile and flexible resource deployment to meet sudden demand spikes across multiple locations.

Logistics startups are also making sure they stock efficiently, plan routes, and scale up backend tech to ensure real-time tracking of the process.This, they say, will help them forecast and auto-replenish before shelves go empty. “Delhi wants dry fruits, Bangalore wants chocolates, Mumbai wants Ferrero. Also, people shop at 2 AM during Navratri and Diwali. So we go 24×7, no debate. Last year, our 1–5 AM orders grew 4x. That’s a consumer unlock no supermarket can serve,” Kasturia added.

Hexalog, an AI-driven supply chain company that caters to D2C players such as Urbanic, Savanna, Frido, among others, is anticipating a significant jump in order volumes, with a target to process and deliver up to 100,000 shipments per day during peak festive weeks. The firm has implemented a detailed festive preparedness plan with hourly productivity checks across fulfilment centres, repositioning high-demand SKUs for faster picking, and strengthening last-mile delivery partnerships to support same-day deliveries in key locations. Utkarsh Tripathi, co-founder and COO, Hexalog, said it is also expanding vendor partnerships to diversify capacity and introducing team motivation programmes to maintain morale and productivity.Variations in regional demand –eastern markets peak ahead of Durga Puja, southern markets around Navratri and Dussehra, and northern and western regions typically surge closer to Diw-Your data has been truncated.