E-tail giants stack up space for India's festival shopping rush

Big-box buildout

- PEERZADA ABRAR

In a cavernous warehouse stretching across 11 football fields in rural Karnataka, metallic robots whir alongside humans, their mechanical symphony echoing through the hangar-sized space. The air carries the scent of luxury soaps as workers pack everything from whey protein to Samsung phones and iPhones, while surveillance cameras track millions of rupees worth of inventory moving through Flipkart's Malur fulfilment centre.

"We're anticipating demand across beauty products, electronics, and appliances this festival season," said Hemant Badri, Flipkart's head of supply chain.

This controlled chaos represents a broader arms race among India's e-commerce giants as they prepare for the country's most lucrative shopping period. Festival sales are expected to climb 27 per cent to ₹1.2 trillion in 2025, driving Amazon and Flipkart to expand warehousing capacity by millions of cubic feet while extending delivery networks to new pincodes.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is expanding its supply chain network ahead of its Big Billion Days sale, adding fulfilment centres and last-mile hubs in key states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, and Tripura. The latest buildout spans 3.5 million square feet and covers over 21,000 pincodes.