Ecom Express revenue jumps 30% to cross Rs 2,127 crore, slips back into loss

Revenue jumped 30% to Rs 2,127 crore in the 12-month period ended March 31.

Expenses grew 40% to Rs 2,269 crore from Rs 1,613 crore in the year-ago period.

The cost of materials consumed was its biggest expenditure, increasing by 46% to Rs 1,157 crore.
Employee benefit costs, the second biggest expense, also grew 19% to Rs 546 crore.

A source aware of the company’s matters told ET that the losses do not come as a surprise and that it was an industry-wide phenomena as all players had built up capacity during the period expecting more volumes.

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“Many third-party logistics players expected ecommerce platforms being built by Reliance and Tata to take off, but that did not happen,” the source said. “There was also an intense price war in the industry with aggregators like Shiprocket, which contributed to the loss.”

ET reported on April 18 that third-party ecommerce logistics companies like Delhivery, Ecom Express and Xpressbees increased prices they charged to aggregators like Shiprocket by 35-40% as the logistics players found aggregators were offering aggressive pricing for per-shipment deliveries compared to their own rates.

The losses at Ecom Express also come at a time when the company has fallen behind FirstCry-backed Xpressbees in terms of daily order volumes, as ET reported on November 22.

The Warburg Pincus-backed company also had to postpone its IPO plans as big-ticket funding deals have dried up. The company has raised $39 million in an internal round from existing investors.

The increased employee expenses come at a time when the company has made multiple key hires in 2022, especially at the C-suite level, as ET reported.

Ecom Express’ strength lies in its coverage of pin codes and in areas not served by competitors. This helps the company charge a premium from some users, industry experts said.

Founders TA Krishnan, Manju Dhawan, K Satyanarayana and the late Sanjeev Saxena had all worked with logistics company Blue Dart before setting up Ecom Express.