As online shopping sees more adoption, the third-party logistics (3PL) shipments grew 70 percent in the month of October-December 2020, contributing 45 percent of the shipment volume for the D2C and e-tailing industry.

The 3PL shipped 750 million, which was a growth of 450 million from the period of July-September 2020.

"The 3PL has tremendous headroom to grow in eGrocery and foodtech as it completes merely 10 percent and 5 percent in those respective sectors," according to Bengaluru-based market intelligence firm RedSeer.

While 3PL has grown from 107 million shipments in July-September period in 2020, it has only grown by two million in the eGrocery space during the same period, which shows that it has a long way ahead.

Online retail in India has grown more than 3 times in the last four years and is only set to be bigger in the coming years.

"As customers become more aware and comfortable with online shopping, delivery experience will become a key parameter to retain and onboard customers, hence this report unveils some invaluable insights on this competitive market," the report noted.

Platforms such as Xiaomi, Decathlon and Dunzo came out as frontrunners in their respective sectors in terms of high delivery experience satisfaction.

While Captive logistics have taken prominence, third-party logistics (3PL) now also plays a key role.

"However, the role of 3PL players differ from one vertical to another. While it contributes highly for digitally native brands (DNB) and other emerging brands, it is still low in the e-grocery and foodtech space," the findings showed.

Owing to smaller scale, there is a definite need for partnerships with third party logistics platforms for last-mile fulfilment and with emergence of ‘delivery' as a key factor for driving customer satisfaction, "it is imperative for these brands/platforms to provide best of the class delivery experience to drive the overall customer satisfaction".

"Over the last one year, we have seen that while online shopping is seeing more adoption, delivery experience has become a key parameter to drive customer satisfaction," the report said.