LatestOne.com opens new facility in Andhra Pradesh

Palred Technologies Limited (PTL), through its subsidiary, Palred Technology Services, has announced to inaugurate its South Indian fulfilment center in Kurnool, in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. PTL, headquartered in Hyderabad, owns and operates LatestOne.com, an e-commerce portal specializing in mobile and tech accessories. LatestOne.Com has been the only online retailer / e-commerce company operating from Hyderabad and now becomes the first company to set up an e-commerce backend fulfilment center in the Rayalaseema Region.

Palem Srikanth Reddy, Chairman & MD, Palred Technologies Limited, said, “We have recruited and trained 40 executives to run the fulfilment center. This will increase to 100 in future as we start receiving more orders. This operation would not only act as a fulfilment center, but would be used to create opportunities in rural BPOs in future. This would help us generate employment opportunities in functions like content management system, helpdesk operations, as well as BPO to handle calls and online tickets/queries. For such functions, there is a potential to create additional 100–150 jobs in two years. The Rayalaseema Region has a large pool of educated and skilled talent. Most of them have been going to Bengaluru and other cities for jobs. Our initiative creates a win-win situation, where the educated youth to get employment near their native place and the company gets skilled and educated talent that can be quickly trained to perform these jobs. E-commerce activities are expected to grow rapidly in the next few years. If these operations are successful we expect other e-commerce companies also to come and set up operations in the Rayalaseema Region and significantly transform the region economically.”

The website, LatestOne.com, receives more than 2 lakh visitors and 6,000 orders a day on an average currently. In the next financial year, the number of visitors is expected to increase to 3 lakh visitors per day, resulting in 10,000 orders per day of which 5,000 orders would be shipped out of Kurnool fulfilment center. LatestOne.com expects a significant jump in next-day deliveries to Bengaluru and Hyderabad – both being major markets for the e-commerce player.

Details of Kurnool fulfilment center (KFC):

ü Size – 18,000 sq. ft. can be increased to 25,000 sq. ft.

ü LatestOne.com targets next-day order delivery in Hyderabad and Bangalore

ü 48 hours order delivery in the rest of South India

ü 40 full-time employees, to start with, can increase to 100

ü Number of order processing lines – Eight

ü Initial order processing capacity – 1 lakh orders per month

ü Maximum order processing capacity – 3 lakh orders per month

With more than 10,000 SKUs, LatestOne.com has the largest catalogue and inventory in the tech and mobile accessories vertical. By combination of superior technology, fulfilment centers and digital marketing skills, LatestOne.com has reduced the cost of sales by way of high conversion rate which resulted in financial efficiencies. The growth of organic business to 17% has also contributed to substantial reductions in costs, while the revenue is increasing year on year.