Logistics firms in festive mode

Logistics and supply chain companies expect a 20-40% increase in festive sales this year, fuelled by pent-up demand, reports S Shanthi.
To make the most of it, many players such as Shiprocket, Porter have enhanced tech capabilities,
and hired gig workers.
 •Logistics companies gear up to meet festive rush, with Al help
• Q-comm forces firms to reorient preparations
Sense AI,MCP, and RevProtectto
sudden demand spikes across
help merchants capture festive
demand. "This festive season, we anticipate one of the strongest demand surges in recent years, driven by rising consumer con-
• Shiprocket has upgraded warehousing infra with Al-driven inventory and demand forecasting systems
• Zippee has opened 45 new dark stores in 13 cities since July to cater to the festive rush
multiple locations.
Logistics startups are also making sure they stock effi-ciently, plan routes, and scale up backend tech to ensure real-
S SHANTHI
Bengaluru, August 19
fidence & accelerated adoption
time of theof online shopping in Bharat,"
 tracking
•AllcargoSupply Chain has expanded its team by
process.This, they say, will help
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, and Shadowfax have enhanced tech capabilities, hired gig workers,and increased the fleet size.Some of them have specifically heightened their focus on Tier 2 and 3 cities that have been outpacing metros in festive e-commerce growth.
Logistics unicorn Shiprocket has upgraded its warehousing infrastructure with Al-driven inventory and demand forecasting systems. On the merchant enablement side, it is rollingout tools like Co-pilot, Shunya.ai,
Atul Mehta, CEO, domesticship-ping, 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.
Festive sales are expected to rise 20-40% this season
Most logistics & supply chain startups are over-hiring riders and operations executives by 20-30%
them forecast and auto-replen-ish before shelves go empty.
"Delhi wants dry fruits, Ben-galuru wants chocolates, Mumbai wants Ferrero. Also, people
30%
shop at 2 AM during Navratri and Diwali. So we go 24x7, no debate. Last year, our 1-5 AM
"Quick commerce is brutal. It's
orders grew 4x. That's a consumer unlock no supermarket
not like 'oh volumes went up a
can serve," Kasturia added.
bit. It literally doubles overnight.
If you don't prepare, the system just collapses.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 ifit 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 newdark stores in 13 cities to cater to the festive rush.
Zippee enables same-day and two-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-hir-ing riders and operations executives by 20-30%. "Yes, it's expensive. But if you miss an order of kaju katliduring Diwali, that customer is gone forever, Kasturia added. The firm has hired more than 700 store associates and 1,000 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 productiv-ity. It has also created a cen-tralised monitoring system to ensure agile and flexible
resource deployment to meet
Allcargo, an Al-driven supply chain firm that caters to D2C players such as
Urbanic,
Savanna, and Frido, 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 ful-filment 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.
Porter has come up with an enterprise offering which is built to help mid-to-large enterprises navigate festive demand spikes,offering centralised visi-bility, transparent operations, and consolidated billing, especially during unpredictable surges. "From automating bookings throughAPI integrations to managing ad hoc, multi-city movements, it brings agilityand control to logistics, ensuring seamless, scalable delivery support throughout the season," Mohit Rathi, vice president, growth, Porter, said.