‘Branding: Embracing the E-tailing Era’ – Vinculum on how SMEs can ride the eCommerce wave

Organized jointly by the World Trade Centre Mumbai and All India Association of Industries (AIAI) the panel discussion held in Mumbai at the WTC was a platform for industry experts to gather and share insights about eTailing in India and what it can mean for SMEs country-wide.

The conference was moderated by Mr. Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan of Networked India.

Vinculum‘s Head of Marketing, Mr. Amit Thapliyal made a compelling case at the event, when he spoke at length about the opportunities for collaboration in the eCommerce ecosystem.

He observed,  “The eCommerce market size is poised to grow to over $50 billion by 2020 and SMEs have tremendous opportunities to ride the eCommerce wave by leveraging the marketplace model which can greatly enhance their reach. Reports show that SMEs who effectively use eCommerce are able to record nearly 60 to 80% reduction in marketing distribution costs and increase their profits by reaching out to millions of new customers both domestically and abroad.”

Citing the example of Nykaa, one of Vinculum’s esteemed customers he added, “Another strategy for eTailers could be product or vertical specialization which gives them a better chance to organize business models and garner customer loyalty, which is not only the result of product quality but also the timely delivery of orders.”

He concluded by saying, “Initiatives by the Government like Make in India and Digital India are primed to give a big boost to SMEs to make in India and sell across the globe.”

Other panelists sharing the stage with him were Mr. Anirudh Suri of India Internet Fund, Mr. Apurva Mankad, WebXpress, Mr. Ashish Jhalani, eTailing India, Mr. Soumya Banerjee, Infibeam, and Mr. Chirag Arya of iChef.The panel was presided over by Shri.

The panel was presided over by Shri. Moize Hussain Ali, Deputy Director General & State Informatics Officer, National Informatics Centre, Government of India who in his keynote address highlighted the growth of etailing in the country, and how it promised to affect SMEs.

Vinculum provides SMEs with an intuitive platform that helps them sell online, reach new customers and multiply their sales. Find out for yourself – Request a demo today!

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

Riding the O2O Wave: 4 practical ways to get it right

Ever heard these terms, and wondered what in the world they were?

Pick up from the store.
Click and collect.
Reserve and collect.
And more recently, BOPIS.

These are fulfillment options gaining popularity with stores and shoppers alike. They allow a shopper to buy online and then collect the purchase from the store. The options offer benefits to you – the retailer, as well as to the customer.

Customers get to choose a time convenient to them, doing away with the frustration of waiting for an order to get delivered and get to save on prices – since the delivery costs are not added to the final price.

Retailers get to save on logistics costs, drive up their in-store traffic – enabling them to create opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell products.

Add to this the fact that a recent study by Deloitte indicates that Omnichannel shoppers are poised to spend about 75 percent more than store-only shoppers in the coming future and click and collect begins to sound like the answer to all retail problems.

Who wouldn’t want to push up their sales, while driving down costs?

The ground reality, however, is something else, entirely.

Take, for example, the Cyber Monday sales as recent as late 2015 – Nearly 60% of all orders placed via ‘click and collect’ ran into issues. Problems faced were:

• Customer made an online payment, but during pick up the items bought were not in the store.

• Customer made an online payment, but during pick up the wrong items were present in-store.

• The customer had to wait in long queues to collect his/her purchase.

• During pick up, no staff member was available to sort issues.

Another report by StellaService, a company that studies customer service issues, found that 25 percent of click-and-collect orders placed in its holiday season tests had problems.

How can you mitigate these issues?

Seamlessly integrate your offline and online experiences:

To facilitate options such as inter-branch transfers, it is important that the information about the inventory of one store is available to the other stores.Your customers want an Omnichannel experience from your brand. For this, you need a way of managing and integrating your offline and online presence. A few retailers have tried doing this, but they failed.

Why? Because the systems already in place are not designed for Omnichannel retail and they do not solve the purpose of seamlessly managing the entire workflow.

What is needed is a system that helps the retailer sell online and across marketplaces, as well as a system that enables a real-time view of in-store inventory.

Make information available:

To facilitate options such as inter-branch transfers, it is important that the information about the inventory of one store is available to the other stores.

For example, if a customer makes a purchase and wishes to pick up their goods from a store which does not have the required stock, visibility of inventory held in other stores would help fulfill the customer’s order.

Ensure access to information:

The customers should have information about your inventory and your products. For example, if a customer looking to make a purchase knows what a product is and whether the product he is looking for is available at his desired location or not, he is more likely to buy.

Make your information consistent:

Consistent information is paramount.

Can you imagine what would happen if your data was inconsistent? Say your customer logs online and sees that you sell a phone with specs stating 13 MP camera and 3 GB RAM, and makes the purchase. However when she turns up to collect it in your store, the phone has, in reality, specs of 16 MP camera and 2 GB RAM. Not only would this mean bad customer experience, it would also bring bad publicity to your brand.

Bringing the Omnichannel experience to your customers is not easy. But with the right software handling your requirements, it does not have to be hard.

Vin eRetail O2O Suite provides Real-Time View of Inventory with Powerful Order Management functionality and ready integrations with web stores, marketplaces, and last-mile fulfillment companies.

Find out for yourself. Request a demo today!

Any tips or comments for us? Leave them in the comments below –

eTailing India 2016: Vinculum helps eCommerce ecosystem ‘Make in India’ and sell across the globe

The 4^th edition of the eTailing India expo held in Mumbai from 17^th to 19^th  Feb provided the opportunity to the ecosystem of online retail industry in India to engage in lively discourse & share best practices.

The annual event was a three-day conference that was attended by delegates comprising  eTailers, retailers, wholesalers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers looking to optimize their operations, multi-channel sales  and share insights about their businesses.

Vinculum CEO, Mr. Venkat Nott presented in the exciting panel discussion on ‘Identifying channels of Sales: Omni-channel? What should I do? Online, Offline, both?’

Sharing the stage with him were panelists from Metro Shoes, Mahindra & Mahindra, Go Fish Retail Consulting, NextIn Advisors, Hasbro Clothing.

Mr. Nott deliberated on what Omnichannel really means and how customer experience is integral to it.

“Today selling online is a must for every retailer across categories. And herein their journey –from Offline to Online Transformation begins with closing the loop of customer experience and creating an open loop of new revenues.

There are many opportunities to create new revenue streams. How do you give the customer a great experience? An offline retailer, for example, has to look at ensuring a real-time view of inventory, training sales associates to use technology to say, guide the customer and reserve stock in different stores etc. and importantly, collaborating.”

Elaborating on the opportunities for collaboration, Mr. Nott talked of how retailers can partner with marketplaces to sell cross-border, the next big space poised for growth. Additionally, he spoke of how retailers can use Omnichannel to leverage new avenues for revenues. “Omnichannel brings with it great revenue opportunity. The revenue streams which are possible for retailers to take up, to be able to reduce the risk and the investment that you need to make to improve the customer experience are numerous if they collaborate with the eCommerce ecosystem” he said

He also advised a word of caution, “Many retailers are employing strategies for Omnichannel – Macy’s is one such example. However, the word is not out as to whether Omnichannel in terms of giving the experience to customers is really profitable yet. You’ve got to find ways to fund the Omnichannel journey and make it both sustainable as well as profitable.”

The conference saw major players in the retail industry such as Holisol, Shopify, ShopClues, eBay, Adidas, Titan attend, among others. The event brought all members of the eCommerce ecosystem together to discuss and identify new revenue streams via multiple sales channels.

Any tips or comments for us? Leave them in the comments below.

Retailers in 2016: What lies in store and beyond

Those are some pretty big numbers.  Reports also show that 44% of shoppers globally are more likely to purchase online if they are able to pick up in-store.

What does this mean for Brick n Mortar Retailers? A lot of opportunities –

Read on! Download your free copy here.

Watch this space for our upcoming series on Offline to Online transformation.

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

B2B to B2C: Bluedart’s journey with us

Bluedart DHL – the largest logistics network in India:

Bluedart DHL is South Asia’s premier courier and integrated logistics company. The organization has an extensive network of over 34,267 locations and presence in more than 220 countries via their parent group – DHL, the leader in express distribution services.

THE PROBLEM:  the Company’s challenge –

Bluedart DHL was traditionally working on a B2B model, and therefore, moving to the B2C eCommerce was a challenge. Their challenges included:

• Lack of visibility across locations and warehouses.
• No tracking of inventory.
• High turnaround time due to inefficient order management processes.

Thus, the organization needed a system that along with solving their business problems was specialized for the B2C eCommerce space and was:

Thus, the solution was Order management and Warehouse management in one complete package.

THE SOLUTION – How we helped:

Vin eRetail is a SaaS-based suite– that includes features such as order management, warehousing, returns management etc. to enable multi-channel retailing for businesses. Our flexible WMS system helped them:

• Implement a WMS for 1.5 lakh sq. of warehouse.
• Fulfill orders via multiple warehouses.
• Segregate inventory on the basis of clients.
• Handle 10-15k shipments per day.
• Have real-time visibility of inventory.
• Integrate Hand-held UI and optimize operations.

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

How to leverage Distributed Order Management for your Business

Here’s how to make business sense of a distributed order management system –

In this series, we talked of DOM – what it is, and what you should know before you implement such a system. Read it here.

What can DOM do for your business?

For instance, say I order a dress from pantaloons online on Monday. The order is to be delivered on Sunday. However, I leave town on Friday. With a DOM system, the retailer is able to give me complete visibility of the order as it is being shipped, as well as the option to track the shipment. Further, I am able to decide whether I would like to collect the order at the shop itself, reschedule it as per my convenience, or have it delivered.

Also, if I want same day delivery , it can be easily managed via DOM. The retailer could simply check the availability of inventory via the OMS, and ship to the customer’s location.

The retailer can check the availability of inventory via the OMS, and ship to the customer’s location.

Thus, the retailer has managed to provide me with a seamless brand experience.

How does DOM  system help? It syncs with various systems and manages:

• Order states and events
• Partial shipments
• Back orders
• Partial orders
• Presale and recurring orders
• Order versioning
• Payment processing

Let us take an example:

Find the complete case study here.

Vin eRetail is our SaaS-based order fulfillment and inventory management software aimed at enabling multi-channel retailing. It provides a strong DOM functionality that –

• Controls, re-routes and prioritizes orders automatically.
• Monitors schedule and shipping requirements.
•  Provides accurate order tracking.

A DOM system can benefit you whether you are a marketplace, a retailer, a supplier, or a manufacturer. Request a demo today.
Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

Our India Circus story – 432% increase in ROI in 8 months

India Circus – an offbeat online shopping destination: 

India Circus is an online shopping store offering contemporary chic and sophisticated products to customers, across categories – home decor, accessories, etc.

The company, set up in November 2012, has a registered user base of 13,000 customers and daily traffic of over 3000 visitors.  The site gets its clients from all over the world – US, Canada, Middle East, and South East Asia.

As they grew, however, they realised that while they had systems in place, disconnectedness between the various operations was a major problem, which was affecting the scalability of the business.

THE PROBLEM: Bottlenecks in Business – 

The major problems they faced in operations were –

THE SOLUTION – How we helped:
Vin eRetail is a SaaS-based suite for inventory management and order fulfillment that enables multi-channel retailing.

Our robust Vin eRetail system helped them:

• Increase ROI by 432% in 8 months.
• Reduce order processing from 48 hours to 2 hours.
• Increase customer repeat ratio by 30%.
• Shrink returns processing from 30 minutes to under 5 minutes.
• Reduce stock out rates from 60 days to 45 days.
• Increase delivery success by 20%.
• Optimize costs for business.

In his own words, Hadi Curtay, CEO commented – “Vin eRetail as a decision for us at India Circus has been fantastic, our costs have gone down on multiple angles, and the cost to get started with them has been extremely low”.

Given the high costs and efforts involved in setting up a returns management and order processing system, Mr. Curtay observed that “We did not have to invest in setting up as we would in a traditional system and because they are SaaS based, we do not have to worry about backups. Additionally, their team has been fantastic and very responsive.”

Using Vinculum has been a great decision, he mused – “I would definitely recommend this to anyone, may it be a big company or a company that is just starting off” signing off.

Watch the complete interview here –

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

Here’s what you need to know about Distributed Order Management

As you can see, this is what the DOM system enables your business to do.According to Gartner’s report on warehousing and fulfillment 2015, a distributed order management system is a type of order management system that has the following four components:

•  A central view of inventory: An enterprise level view of inventory – in stores, distribution centers, 3^rd party providers, in transit vendors.

• Complete customer info:  Details of the customers such as address etc.

• Rule engine:  This is the ‘brain’ – a set of rules to decide and orchestrate how orders are to be fulfilled from available inventory.

• Capability to instruct: This means that the system has the capability to relay orders to other systems in distribution centers, suppliers or stores to use available inventory and carry out the physical fulfillment process.

While this may sound like the perfect solution to all your fulfillment woes, it is important to note that a DOM system is not for everyone.

You need DOM if you have a wide network of manufacturing facilities, multiple distribution centers – i.e., a fairly comprehensive supply chain. However, if you are a mid-level or small sized retailer with a more localized network, then a DOM system is probably not for you.

What should you know before implementing a DOM system?

Here’s what you should check before you implement a DOM system into your organization:

Integrations with 3PLs and last-mile fulfillment companies: A DOM system, should have the required integrations with other 3PL providers, and last-mile fulfillment companies, to enable accurate and on-time deliveries.

Complete Order Information:
Before you implement DOM, you should have complete information about the order – order destination, order visibility, order tracking, order routes. This can be leveraged by your DOM system for end-to-end fulfillment.

Strong functionality:
The DOM system you implement should have a strong functionality to manage order re-routing and customer service issues. It should also have the ability to centralize and prioritize orders, so as to orchestrate complex  fulfillment flows to provide timely delivery to the customer.

The points listed above can help a company understand where it stands on key decision points, and be instrumental in deciding whether to get a DOM system onboard.

Coming next in this series– Using DOM to leverage profits.

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

3 steps to start selling online NOW

Sell Online 101 – Part Two: How should I sell online on a marketplace?

Previously in this series, we talked about how you can decide where to sell products online – in your own store or on a marketplace. If you haven’t checked it, here is the link.

So you’ve decided to sell online. Whether you want to sell items online on Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, or AskmeBazaar, what follows?

Here we’ve broken down the procedure, into an easy 3 step process you can follow to sell products online:

Step 1: Register your business:
Before selling items online, it is imperative that you begin by registering your business for online sales. There are several types of business registrations one can go for –

• Sole proprietorship – This type of business registration is required when you are selling as an individual on the marketplace. It is the easiest type of business registration and is as such considered as an extension of the proprietor. An essential document is the PAN card, with which a bank account can be opened for the business.
• Partnership company – When two or more people partner to start a company together. For a partnership company, a partnership deed is needed. On the basis of this deed, a bank account is opened and the company is registered.
• LLP (Limited Liability partnership) – Business registration can also be carried out as an LLP. The key difference between an LLP and a partnership company is that an LLP is treated as a different legal entity.
• Private Limited Company – This is the last type of business registration. A company of this category has its own identity – PAN card, VAT number, and Service Tax registrations (if applicable) are all in the name of the company.

All business registrations further need tax registrations:

• TAN – TAN or Tax Deduction and Collection Number (TAN) is a mandatory 10 digit alpha number required for all businesses that are responsible for Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) or Tax Collection at Source (TCS). A TDS certificate is generally issued as proof of collection of tax. Find more about your TAN here.
• VAT – VAT registration is required for any business that sells products or services. It is also known as the TIN (Tax Payer identification number) number and is a must while applying to sell online on any marketplace. Entities without the TIN can sell, but they would be restricted to the categories – books, handicrafts, online education or unstitched fabrics.
  Know more about TIN here.

Step 2: Register as a seller:

Once you have the documents mentioned above in place, you need to register yourself as a seller on the marketplace, before you can actually sell online. The details that are required via registration are:

• Name
• Contact details: Email address and phone number
• Business address
• Product category
• Business registration documents:
  You would essentially need an id proof document and an address proof document to be provided at the time of seller registration. However the permissible documents would change, depending on whether you register yourself as – sole proprietor, LLP/Partnership Company or a private limited company.
• Tax registration documents:
  The marketplace will then need your tax and bank account details. These would be –
  • PAN card
  • TIN number
  • TAN
  • Bank account number
  • Bank account name
  • Bank IFSC code

Step 3: Listing your product:

Once you have registered on the marketplace, and the details provided by you have been verified, next you need to list your products online. This is important, as the product categories you choose and the details you provide is what draws your customers to you.
This can be done in two ways:

• Listing one product at a time: This can be done manually, via the seller portal.
• Listing in bulk: Most major marketplaces allow for volume product listings. Amazon, for instance, has in-built tools wherein spreadsheets containing all desired product information, can be uploaded in one go.

Depending on the product category you choose, you will need to fill in details such as size, model, color, etc. Once you complete your process of registering and listing on the marketplace, you can now begin selling!

Coming next in this series: Sell Online 101 – Part Three! 

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.

Where should I sell online? Consider these 3 factors before you decide!

Sell Online 101 – Part One: Where should you sell online?

If you are a seller who is looking to expand the business by selling online, then this post is for you.

The Indian e-commerce market is set to grow by over 35%, up to an impressive $100 billion mark from $17 billion, over the next five years, according to a recent PwC study.

Given such impressive numbers, it is no wonder then that more and more sellers want to sell online. Before you start selling online, however, let’s look at the following points of comparison to understand where to sell online – on your own website or on a marketplace.

Selling online vs Selling on marketplaces

1. Product category:
   

The product category you intend to sell online in has a direct impact on your choice of channel. The branding of your product line, the competition in the product category and the congruence between your product line and the marketplace, are all factors you must consider.

For e.g.  If you are a seller of affordable bridal lehengas, then to be consistent in your branding you should select a marketplace such as Craftsvilla. However, in comparison, if you intend to sell exclusive, made-to-order designer bridal lehengas, which would need extensive brand building, then you would probably be better off setting up your own store.

2. Ease of doing business:

There is no denying the customer reach that stalwarts like Amazon, Flipkart command in the market. Thus, the ease of entry into the market is high. In addition, selling on a respectable marketplace ensures trust and credibility and high amount of customer traffic. Further, no time is expended in setting up the website.The seller simply needs to list his product and get access to a ready made market.

By contrast, setting up your own website consists of selecting a domain name, a web host such as HostGator etc., shopping cart, as well as a payment gateway.

Some website builder service providers like Magento, MartJack etc., provide shopping carts, SSL certificates, and payment gateways as integrations installed with their basic offerings. Even so, each of these decisions requires careful consideration depending on your store requirements.

3. Costs:

Another important factor to be considered is the cost associated with listing on a marketplace. Selling on a marketplace has its own pitfalls. If you are selling a product that is low on margins, then the marketplace route is probably not for you. For instance, Flipkart’s pricing page lists their pricing structure to show the following:

Marketplace Fees-

• Shipping Fee – Fee charged for shipping costs accrued by the marketplace.
• Closing Fee – Fee charged per sale closed.
• Selling Commission – Fees charged on a percentage of the selling price of the product.
• Service Tax (as a percentage of the Marketplace fees)

In comparison, costs for setting up a web store vary greatly. For e.g., Shopify’s pricing page lists different plans, each with a set of features. Depending on the plan selected, the transaction fees will vary, as below:

• Lite – Mediums of sale are POS, Facebook, as well as Shopify buy buttons.
• Basic – Mediums of sale include online stores, POS, Facebook and Shopify buttons.
• Pro – Includes all mediums in basic version, and additional features like fraud analysis,
  gift cards, etc.
• Unlimited – This plan is packed full of advanced features, such as real-time carrier shipping,
  wherein the shipping costs are calculated automatically at the exact time that the order is placed.

When comparing the two, the upfront fees will be more in the case of Shopify, however,  in the long run, due to its marketplace fees setup, Flipkart would end up being a more expensive option.

Thus, as a seller- you must think long and hard about the factors listed above. Only then can you decide as to whether selling on marketplaces is for you, or if you would be willing to take up the pains of selling online, via your own store.

Vin eRetail Express helps you sell across marketplaces, manage orders across multiple channels & fulfill with ease. All this with an intuitive Order management platform on the cloud.

Coming soon in this series: Sell Online 101 – Part Two! 

Any tips or questions for us? Leave them in the comments below.