Walmart-owned Flipkart on Wednesday said it will deploy over 2,000 electric vehicles in its delivery fleet prior to the festive season and the Big Billion Days. "These 2,000 electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers have been deployed across 90 cities in India and will help deliver smiles this festive season sustainably," a statement said.

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Earlier this year, Flipkart had committed to deploying 25,000 EVs in its supply chain by 2030 towards its transition to 100 percent fleet electrification as part of its collaboration with The Climate Group's EV100 campaign. Flipkart Head - Sustainability and Social Responsibility Mahesh Pratap Singh said the festive season is about creating progressive value for all stakeholders.

"...we are proud to uphold our promise to our customers to bring them a sustainable festive season with each order. The Flipkart teams have come together to ensure our delivery executives are delivering to thousands of pincodes across 90 cities in more than 2,000 electric vehicles," he added. Some of these cities include Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Waidhan, Hyderabad, Vidisha, Shajapur, Jhabua, Pune, Sonai, Mysore and Rampur.

The homegrown e-commerce company also highlighted that it is going plastic-free for millions of packages. "After successfully eliminating single-use plastic in its own supply chain in July this year, more than 75 percent of Flipkart's seller fulfilled shipments are now being processed in sustainable packaging, marking a 20x increase over July 2020 covering more than 70 facilities across India," the statement said.

The sustainable packaging alternatives were co-created with seller partners to customise designs catering to durability, size constraints and cost efficiency for different product categories. In a separate statement, Flipkart said it is working actively with its Flipkart Samarth artisans, weavers and handicraft makers to enable their livelihoods and business growth, ahead of the eighth edition of its flagship festive event, The Big Billion Days (TBBD).

"This TBBD, the artisans and weavers who are part of the program, have curated a special line of products under the theme 'Artforms of India' as they tap into the pan-India consumer base who shop online during the festive season," the statement said. Flipkart Samarth programme has grown 7x in sales since last year and now impacts 9.5 lakh livelihoods by providing artisans, weavers and handicrafts makers with greater market opportunities and hand-holding them to make them comfortable with digital commerce.

Last year, the artisans who were a part of Flipkart's annual festive event saw a 2.5x increase in their revenue compared to the non-festive period, the statement said.

"With a larger number of beneficiaries associated with us this festive season, we are looking forward to giving them an inclusive platform where they can showcase their diverse products, through a dedicated storefront and collection. Our aim is to ensure that Indian consumers while making a purchase, are able to envision their contribution in impacting the livelihoods of these communities”, Jagjeet Harode, Senior Director and Head - Marketplace at Flipkart, said. E-commerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart have also announced sale events (starting October 3) and are lining up new launches and offers to woo shoppers. Players hold multiple sale events around Dussehra and Diwali.

E-commerce companies see a large chunk of their business coming in during the festive sales and they make significant investments ahead of time to ramp up their capacity and add features to be able to handle the spike in orders while ensuring a smooth experience for shoppers and sellers. According to consulting firm RedSeer, e-commerce platforms are expected to potentially clock over USD 9 billion gross GMV (gross merchandise value) during the festive season this year as against USD 7.4 billion last year, a growth of 23 percent.