India’s logistics market is quietly fragmenting. Ever since the ecommerce boom of 2015-2016, scale in delivery was built around one idea: move as many parcels as possible for large marketplaces, as cheaply as possible. Volume was king. Margins were secondary. Most players optimised for throughput, not experience. That model is now showing its limits, and as a result, logistics players are breaking away from marketplaces and large retail manufacturers. Take Shadowfax, for instance. After years of operating as a marketplace-first logistics partner, the publicly listed company is now on the cusp of a strategic reset. The company believes the next leg of growth will not come from bulk ecommerce alone, it will come from same-day delivery, D2C brands, and hyperlocal commerce. In its recent earnings call, management said: “Shadowfax Prime is now our fastest-growing vertical. Two years ago our D2C share was negligible. Today, we’re already in the early teens in terms of the growth percentage and still accelerating.” Shadowfax wants to move downstream: closer to brands, closer to sellers, and closer to consumers. It wants to become India’s D2C-first logistics platform. That’s because D2C volumes are expanding at triple-digit year-on-year rates, with market share moving from negligible levels two… Read MoreInc42 Media
