Meesho Forays Into Logistics With Launch Of Valmo

E-commerce marketplace Meesho has launched Valmo, "a portmanteau of value and movement", in an effort to build a pan India-level logistics solution.

By partnering with fulfilment centres across the country, Valmo aims to create a national logistics solution by eliminating entry barriers for local players and helping them grow their businesses, Meesho said in a statement.

The company has built disaggregated network nodes, including first-mile, last-mile, and sorting centres across the country. "This also allows delivery partners to be located close to users, thereby reducing the time taken for each delivery," it said.

Valmo is building technological capabilities internally as well with software-as-a-service providers for its network. It has collaborated with logistics companies including ElasticRun, FarEye, LoadShare and Shipsy to develop these technological solutions. 

Valmo currently helps in managing over 9 lakh orders daily, which accounts for nearly 18% of third-party e-commerce shipments in India. It services about 6,000 pin codes across more than 20 states, with about 3,000 micro entrepreneurs who act as business partners.

The network currently only fulfills Meesho's own orders, but is open to taking up orders from other e-commerce marketplaces in the future. Meesho continues to work with leading third-party logistics providers, such as Delhivery, Shadowfax, Xpressbees, and Ecom Express, among others.

The move by Meesho angles at its shot at creating low-cost, in-house infrastructure and logistics services, in a bid to take on captive delivery arms such as Flipkart's Ekart and Amazon's Amazon Transportation Services.

In April 2023, Bernstein in its report had said Meesho's primary customers are value-oriented, low- to mid-income cohorts for whom delivery speeds may not be a key priority. However, the unicorn seems to be willing to change that, by offering faster deliveries as an added moat.