E-commerce Apparel Industry in India

According to the Indian E-commerce Trends Report of Unicommerce, the online fashion and accessories industry in India witnessed an order volume growth of 20.9%, becoming the segment with the highest order volumes in FY22 as compared to the previous financial year. 

The apparel industry is known for its ability to adapt to change, with new trends and styles emerging regularly. Change has always been the wardrobe essential of this industry, happening almost every quarter of each year. This constant need for adaptation also brings its own set of challenges for the industry. 

Keeping up with the fast-paced nature of the industry can be difficult for brands and retailers, as they need to stay ahead of the latest trends and styles while also managing costs and maintaining profitability. With a rotational shift happening in the industry, Unicommerce decided to go ahead and curate e-commerce fashion trends, challenges, opportunities, and solutions that can help you manage and schedule your business action plan in 2023!

Let’s look at the growing trends, challenges, opportunities & solutions in the apparel industry.

Apparel Industry Trends

The apparel industry is constantly evolving, with new trends emerging each season. Here are a few of the key trends to watch in the industry in the coming year:

Trend #1: Fashioning the Future With Sustainability

Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of the clothing they purchase. As a result, sustainable fashion, also known as eco-fashion or ethical fashion, is becoming an increasingly important trend in the industry. 

Brands are increasingly using organic cotton, bamboo, and linen, which are grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Recycled materials, such as recycled polyester and nylon, are also becoming more popular as they help to reduce waste and pollution. 

Another key aspect of sustainable fashion is the use of sustainable production methods. This includes reducing water and energy consumption, using low-impact dyes, and implementing fair labor practices. As consumers become more conscious about their purchasing power and environmental impact, it is expected that sustainable fashion production will become increasingly important.

Trend #2: Revolutionizing Fashion With Athleisure

Athleisure, a trend that combines athletic and leisure wear, has been revolutionizing the fashion industry in recent years. This trend has been driven by the increasing popularity of comfortable, functional clothing worn both in and out of the gym.

As per Statista:The sports and athleisure retail market in India was valued at 158 billion Indian rupees in financial year 2021, and estimated to grow to 402 billion rupees by financial year 2025. Footwear made up the largest chunk of the market during the measured time period, amounting to about 90 billion rupees in 2021, and projected to grow by 21 percent by 2025.

Brands are now offering a wider range of options, from performance-focused gear to more casual and street-style pieces. This has led to the creation of new styles, such as the fusion of athletic wear with formal wear, and has opened up new possibilities for fashion designers.

Another aspect of athleisure is the use of technology, such as moisture-wicking fabric and UV protection, to enhance the functionality of athletic wear. Apparel businesses are investing in research and development to create new fabrics and technologies that can improve the performance of athletic wear.  

Overall, athleisure has been a game-changer in the fashion industry, with its versatility and functionality driving the demand for athletic wear. As the trend continues to evolve, it’s likely that we’ll see more innovations in the design, materials, and technology of athletic wear, making it even more appealing to consumers.

Trend #3: Market Growth Headed by Women and Kids Wear

The shift in lifestyle and priorities of modern women is leading to a greater focus on self-awareness and appearance, driving growth in the women’s apparel market. As they are becoming more conscious of their fashion choices, the demand for trendy and fashionable clothing is increasing.

The market for kids’ wear is driven by factors such as the increasing number of working mothers and the growing trend of parents investing in high-quality clothing for their children. According to a recent report by Wazir Advisors, India’s kids’ wear market is expected to reach INR 1,23,000 Crores by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13%. 

In terms of product segments, the market for women’s wear is segmented into ethnic wear, western wear, and lingerie. Western wear is expected to be the most lucrative segment in the women’s wear market, driven by the increasing demand for casual and formal wear. With the growth of e-commerce, the market is expected to continue growing, providing opportunities for fashion retailers and manufacturers.

Trend #4: Style and Functionality are Key to Modern Consumers’ Wardrobe

When it comes to fashion, modern consumers are looking for clothing that not only looks good but also serves a purpose. The combination of style and functionality is becoming increasingly important in today’s wardrobe. Consumers are looking for comfortable, durable, and versatile clothing that can be worn for different occasions and meet different needs.

Functionality is especially important for activewear and athleisure, as consumers seek clothing that can keep up with their busy lifestyles and support their physical activities. Fashion, on the other hand, fashion is essential in creating a unique and personal style. Consumers are looking for clothing that reflects their personal tastes and preferences and makes them stand out. 

Brands are responding to this by offering a wide range of options, from classic and timeless styles to trendy and fashion-forward pieces. As lifestyles and fashion preferences evolve, brands and retailers that understand and respond to these needs will be well-positioned to succeed in the market.

Trend #5: The Growing Era of Digital First Brands

The apparel industry is currently experiencing a shift towards digital-first brands. These brands prioritize online sales and digital marketing over traditional brick-and-mortar retail and are utilizing technology to create a seamless and personalized shopping experience for consumers.

One of the biggest advantages of digital-first brands is their ability to reach a global audience through e-commerce. These brands can sell directly to consumers, bypassing traditional retail channels and cutting down on costs. This allows them to offer a wide range of products at competitive prices.

With the advancement in technology and more people turning to the internet for fashion inspiration and shopping, digital-first brands will have a significant opportunity to thrive in the industry.

Opportunities in the Apparel Industry

The Indian textile and apparel market has significant growth potential, with the industry projected to reach $190 billion by 2025-26. To reach this target and establish a sustainable textile industry, Indian businesses must take advantage of government support schemes, meet global buyer sustainability demands, and prioritize supply chain traceability.

Government policies and regulations have directed their focus on this industry. Mr. Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Textiles, announced that the Indian government plans to create 75 textile hubs across the country. Not to mention the government has also reduced the custom duty rates on caprolactam, nylon chips, and nylon fiber and yarn to 5%. These regulations have created plenty of opportunities for the Textile and Apparel Industry in the e-commerce sector.

With lined-up opportunities, there come several challenges for simplified apparel e-commerce.

Current & Future Challenges and Problems in the Apparel Industry

The new trends, changing consumer habits, and market shifts have shed light on the new challenges the e-commerce apparel industry is facing in 2023. 

• Difficulty in managing customized order allocation and inventory sync
• Unable to align warehouse operations manually 
• The impact of COVID-19 and the need to adapt to the changing retail landscape and consumer behavior
• Inability to manage deliveries, leading to a higher % of Customer Initiated Returns (CIR)
• Hard to align multiple sales channels and offline stores alongside 
• Back-breaking for e-commerce platforms to manage multiple vendors
• Untimely and inefficient delivery of products
• No stock rotation leading to outdated stock
• The increased cost of Reverse Logistics
• The need to navigate the complex and ever-changing regulations and compliance requirements
• Poor management of returns and cancellations
• Difficulty in predicting and managing demand, inventory, and logistics

Evolving Practices as a Solution to Challenges in the Apparel Industry

Starting up your own fashion e-commerce business has never been easier, especially post the pandemic. Right from managing the inventory and warehouse operations to timely updating the digital attire of an e-commerce store, the aspects are many. But with the advancement of technology, it has become important to adopt some upcoming practices, aligning the sales with your operations.

Following are some of the upcoming e-commerce practices that act as a solution to the challenges you are witnessing during these tough times.

• Delivering Omnichannel Experiences

It has become imperative to provide customers with a seamless experience at all touchpoints. Integrating and aligning offline and online channels together helps both businesses and customers develop better relationships. Omnichannel retail offers unhindered shopping experiences to customers and helps keep the inventory and stock levels uniform. With its advanced Omnichannel solution, Unicommerce has enabled effortless business operations & tremendous growth for Iconic Fashion India. 

• Serving Directly With the D2C Business Model

D2C is quite a recent approach wherein brands deal with customers directly, eliminating intermediaries. While many new brands are adopting this strategy, some established brands are switching from traditional business models to D2C models. According to Unicommerce’s e-commerce Q3 2022 trends report, the e-commerce industry witnessed robust order volume growth of 48.3% through the brand websites, while marketplaces recorded a 21.5% order volume growth.

But the question is, what makes it so different that almost all the new brands are swearing by this approach? Well, the biggest advantage for a D2C brand is that they can shorten the time to sell the products, giving their customers a better price while earning a higher margin.  Direct to Consumer (D2C) e-commerce allows the original brand voice to come in front, giving brands better engagement with their customers. Moreover, the new-age solutions of Unicommerce are made specifically for D2C brands like Enamor, Chumbak, etc., to scale on higher revenues.

Why Unicommerce?

Unicommerce – Solutions to problems in the Textile and Garment industry

Unicommerce, the #1 cloud-based e-commerce solution, is focused on changing the face of Indian Fashion retail.  It is on a mission to automate the largely scattered apparel industry to make it technology-driven. Its Order and Warehouse Management solutions help to automate clients’ supply chain operations for both online and offline businesses (B2B and B2C). Moreover, Unicommerce comes with 200+ integrations; Cart, Marketplaces, Logistics, ERP, and POS systems to manage the needs of Wholesalers, Distributors, Retail Chains, Individual Store owners, and e-commerce sellers to increase revenue and save operations costs.

Unicommerce’s robust supply chain technology solutions have resulted in exponential business growth, & improved unit economics for over 20,000+ global marketplaces & brands across India, the Middle East, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. Some of the notable clientele of Unicommerce in the fashion and apparel industry include TCNS Clothing Co. LTD. (W, Aurelia, Elleven), Oryvo, Brand Studio, Bestseller (Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, Only), Being Human, GAP, GANT, Crocs, etc. 

Below is a quick brief about Unicommerce’s offerings; click the links to know more in detail.

• Advanced Warehouse Management – Unicommerce helps track inventory counts and manage dispatched and allocated orders, making the flow of operations simpler and more efficient. Moreover, you get a real-time update on the entire warehouse operations across multiple locations. 
• Omnichannel Solution – Unicommerce offers an Omnichannel Solution so that you can route online orders to the nearest offline store. 
• ERP/ POS management – All the current ERP/POS systems (Tally, Base, Oracle, Navision, SAP, etc.)  get effortlessly integrated into our omnichannel software product
• Bundle Management – Unicommerce has a Bundle Management feature that lets you create combo packs while updating combo product SKUs in real-time across multiple sales channels. 
• Logistics Integration – Unicommerce helps brands reduce cancellations and returns as it automates the whole process, ensuring the right product gets shipped to the customers
• Unified Vendor Panels – With the Vendor Management solution, e-commerce fashion retailers can seamlessly manage suppliers via centralized login.
• Centralized Inventory Management – To enable more significant cost savings, the efficient Inventory Management system restricts bad stock while minimizing the risk of overselling.
• Accurate Report Analysis – Unicommerce lets you analyze and scrutinize your daily operations with its Dashboard segment. You can track the number of orders fulfilled, Sales achieved, Returns progressed, etc. 
• E-commerce Returns Management – Managing RTO and CIR are not difficult anymore. Unicommerce offers a comprehensive returns management solution through a centralized panel to manage returns across all sales channels, amplifying your overall sales profits. 
• Marketplace Integration – Having come pre-integrated with 40+ marketplaces, Unicommerce lets you sell efficiently across multiple sales channels such as Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, etc. 
• Simplified Fulfillment – Unicommerce simplifies the process of fulfillment with its fastest and error-free order fulfillment feature.

To coincide, e-commerce brands in the fashion and apparel industry are rising. The Apparel industry is entering a phase where the opportunities are endless, provided the sector is getting constant assistance and support from the government. New and updated practices are required to address the rising challenges. However, online fashion brands must reorganize their business model to cater to evolving demands of the competitive business environment.

Explore our platforms:

• Logistics Tracking and Returns Management Platform
• Automate Reconciliation of Orders, Returns and Payments

Related read –

• FMCG Industry challenges in India
• Healthcare Industry: Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions
• What is Warehouse Management System?
• Logistics vs Supply Chain Management
• How is Batch Management Critical in Warehouse Operations?
• Top 7 Challenges of Order Management System in E-commerce
• Simplifying Receiving and Putaway Operations of Warehouse

Uncover Leading Brands Success with Unicommerce! –

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Upscalio Achieved a 99%+ Order Fulfillment Rate with 100%+ Order Growth
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales
• Bulbul Simplified Selling Across 200+ Vendors
• Chumbak Lifestyle Boost Sales Across 58+ Retail Stores
• TCNS Achieved 9X Growth in Sales
• Hamilton Housewares Attained 96%+ Pick Accuracy Rate

The post E-commerce Apparel Industry in India: Trends, Challenges, Opportunities & Solutions appeared first on unicommerce.com.

With Amazon Global Selling Program, a program by Amazon that allows the sellers to list and sell their products on Amazon’s global marketplaces. You can smoothly go on a spree to sell internationally. Amazon has put a lot of effort into helping the eCommerce sellers sell internationally. 

Still unclear?  Let’s go on an in-depth understanding of how it works and how you should be ready before entering the international business. 

Why Sell Internationally?

Even though  e-commerce vendors consider international selling to be intimidating, here are the reasons to change your mind:

• Huge Customer Base

With Amazon Global Selling (AGS) program, you can tap and sell into different countries and engage millions of customers. Your unique products have a chance to gain popularity and sell at an exponential rate when you broaden your horizon. 

• Pick, Pack & Ship (Amazon FBA)

International shipping or customer service is no longer an issue! Fulfillment Services by Amazon (FBA) are at your rescue! The process of this is simple. Your products/items are stored in the fulfillment centers with Amazon doing all the picking, packing, and shipping, along with providing customer services. Currently, FBA offers three international fulfillment programs for you to select from in order to create your product listings.

• Opportunities to Sell on Different Marketplaces

Currently, Amazon operates in 13 global online marketplaces. It enables the sellers to expand their business globally, irrespective of their business being physically established somewhere else.

How to sell internationally with Amazon Global Selling?

• Register on the Desired Online Marketplace

Once you have made up your mind to expand your business internationally, the first step is to create your Amazon seller account for the respective country you want to sell in. For you to register and sell on Amazon Global, you have to pay a monthly fee for each active account.

• List Your Products

After completing the registration, list all your products and items you want to sell. Select offers by defining rules, or choose specific SKUs.

• Customers Purchases

When customers see your products and make a purchase, you automatically get notified where to ship your products.

• Deliver  Orders

You can either deliver products to the customers and confirm the shipments on your own or choose Amazon Fulfillment Services to fulfill the orders.

• Amazon Fees and Deductions

Amazon will deduct its usual fee from the customer’s account and transfer the funds to your listed bank account. Now that you have a clear choice, here are some tips and guidance on how to enter the Amazon Global Selling Program.

Five Essential Things To Do Before Entering Amazon Global Selling

• Optimize Inventory in Real-time

When you are selling internationally, you shouldn’t leave any scope for errors because one mistake could bear huge losses. You should ensure the timely and accurate stocking of goods. The best option is to automate your inventory management system. This will update, replenish, and provide you an exact stock position. 

You should no longer bank on excel spreadsheets and run inventory software manually if you are aiming to expand your footprints in different geographies. To grow unhesitatingly, you should have sustainable and reliable inventory support to gear up your business operations. Constant monitoring of stock movements and analyzing the data helps to build a steady stock pipeline and disbursement across all the sales platforms.

• Reassemble Warehouse Operations

Warehouse operations are the backbone of any eCommerce business. Centralize crucial tasks such as maintaining healthy stock levels automatically and location-allocation in multiple warehouse sites for you to save time in traversing to the shipping sites. Given that omnichannel solutions are taking commercial activities by storm, keep yourself updated by tracking warehouse activities. Track every item moved in or out of the warehouse, thus reducing the difference between actual inventory and virtual inventory.  Along with this, build the capability to process orders in bulk and reduce operational costs.

• Ensure the Best Logistic Services

If you are not employing the fulfillment services by Amazon (FBA), then you need to make sure that you choose a logistics provider available at hand. You need to have a system that provides you the best logistic service and shipment partner because international shipping requires its own sweet time. You need to be prepared well in advance to make timely delivery.

• Leverage Technology for Shipment Status

Whether you choose FBA or fulfill orders on your own, you need to keep track of the orders. It doesn’t get over with just tracking the status of customer’s orders. You also have to track the shipment of your stock from manufacturers so that you can optimize your warehouse well in advance.

• Hasslefree Order Returns Management

International selling can grow intimidating if you are unable to manage order returns. The volume of returns from multi-channels poses a tough challenge to manage the returns impeccably. Courier returns or returns to the point of origin, and customer-initiated returns need to be differentiated with a proper procedure. The best way to manage order returns is to automate the order returns management process. When you have a centralized panel to manage returns across all sales channels, it improves your overall profit as well as the customer’s experience.

Unicommerce is your one-stop solution for all your supply chain operations and to help you get ready for the international market. Along with that, you can also tap into additional marketplaces as we have 200+ integrations with leading marketplaces and logistics providers. Align your business now with Unicommerce and spread your horizon in the international market place. 

Read Unicommerce’s Success Story with Top Brand – 

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales

The post Amazon Global Selling Program: Your Key to Sell on the International Marketplaces appeared first on unicommerce.com.

From establishing multiple touchpoints across channels to retaining loyal customers to evolving marketing strategies, you have a lot of opportunities lying at your fingertips.

Are you a budding entrepreneur thinking about starting an e-commerce business in the UAE? Or maybe you have an established brick and mortar, but you are finding issues synchronizing your orders and inventory. Or maybe you do have a great online presence, but your operational costs are hampering your ability to grow your bottom line. Well, the answer is to integrate your order, inventory, and logistics in such a way that you not only speed up the inventory turnaround but also synchronize your efforts.

But before that let’s first focus on the current market opportunities and understand the untapped potential for e-commerce businesses in the market!

1. Growing Opportunities for E-commerce Players in the UAE

In the current scenario, the GCC region includes the largest e-commerce penetration rates globally. Not only consumers highly dependent on the upcoming technology systems, but businesses are also leveraging them to build their retail capabilities. 

Coming over to the marketplace platforms in the region. Now, that’s something you, as a seller, can’t afford to miss. Amazon.ae has become the biggest player in the UAE market, followed by Namshi.com and Noon.com. While Amazon has been the greatest e-commerce platform in the area, there are still others that you can definitely leverage, especially if you are a startup and are looking for niche consumers.

As we talk about e-commerce, it would be wrong to leave the logistics as achieving operational excellence is the goal of each e-commerce business. While enhancing the logistics and supply chain management capabilities could be the main focus of the businesses in the region, the new and improved technological methods, such as GPS-driven solutions, RFID tracking, and 3D printing, could be leveraged to support growth and scale business. Moreover, the emergence of shipping providers has empowered SMEs.

Now, the question is how can you actually make the most of these lying opportunities?

Well, it’s understandable that working in sync and optimizing operations has to be the top priority, but what are the actual challenges that work as a roadblock in your e-commerce journey, especially when you are operating in the UAE? Have you ever thought about that? Let’s understand!

2. Challenges associated with Order, Inventory and Logistics in the UAE –

We have seen that e-commerce is growing at an explosive pace in the United Arab Emirates, and people are shifting to online channels, but there are still some challenges that e-commerce businesses face even today. But, first of all, you need to understand that inventory, order, and logistics are correlated to each other. Even if you have mastered any one of these, you won’t be able to amplify business profits because the process will remain incomplete.

Imagine that you have adopted an automated e-commerce inventory management system to get more control & visibility over your inventory. But you are still not able to fulfill orders on time. What could be the reasons?

Maybe your outbound workflow is not strong enough. Or maybe you are not able to assign your orders to shipping providers efficiently. Manual errors could be one of the common problems that companies witness without proper implementation of inventory, order, and logistics systems.

Some of the challenges that you are bound to encounter without a proper inventory, order, and logistics system are:

1. Inventory Management Challenges in the UAE

Businesses in the UAE are experiencing e-commerce inventory management challenges such as keeping the real-time inventory count and maintaining fast stock replenishment. One of the main reasons for the inventory challenges is the obsolete and poor infrastructure of warehouses that are not competent to house the inventory in a systematic way. Moreover, the value chains are complicated in nature and also hinder the growth of e-commerce businesses. Some of the main inventory management problems that people in the UAE face are:

• Unable to keep up with the real-time inventory count
• Hard to maintain the fast stock replenishment
• Difficulty in locating the inventory in the warehouse due to limited visibility
• Problems in consolidation & sorting of inventory due to obsolete warehouse infrastructure
• Witnessing the situations of stockouts amid peak season
• Difficulty in managing the marketplace orders due to poor sync between inventory and online orders

2. Multichannel Order Management Challenges in the UAE

One of the biggest problems in the UAE region is that bulk orders are difficult to route and fulfill. For example; you deal in the online business of fragrances and home aromas. Amid Eid al-Fitr, you come across bulk orders of Oudh. But due to the poor logistics capabilities, you are not able to fulfill them. In the order management process, this kind of problem is generally faced by businesses.  Moreover, handling order returns is yet another issue that e-commerce brands face. Right from assigning the delivery partner for the returns, to hastening the overall process, there are a lot of aspects in reverse logistics that businesses need to gain control of. Some of the main order management challenges that people in the UAE face are:

• Hard to pick & pack optimization of SKUs at the order level
• Difficulty in fulfilling orders faster amid the seasonal demands
• Controlling the quality of the products to avoid delivery of damaged products
• Challenges in aligning the returns management process

3. Logistics Management Challenges in the UAE

The countries in the UAE have the biggest disadvantage of postal codes over any other country. Many countries in the region don’t have postal codes or mail courier systems, which in turn creates a cluster in the minds of the businesses as to what orders need to be delivered in which region. For example, in Dubai, there are no street addresses for retailers to deliver the products, which makes it difficult for them to fulfill the demands of their customers on time. Moreover, e-tailers face difficulties in picking up products from SMEs as they are not much aware of e-commerce and are aligned to rather sell products to physical retail stores.  Some of the main logistics management challenges that people in the UAE face are:

• Difficulty in tracking the order from the fulfillment center to the final destination
• Delay in delivering products due to the lack of postal codes
• Hard to assign deliveries to various shipping providers on the basis of the nature of the order
• Inability to integrate various fulfillment centers & warehouses due to lack of full-stack supply chain solution

3. How Can You Overcome the Challenges in the UAE? Curated E-commerce Management Solutions to Overcome These Problems

In the digital age of technology, it has become increasingly important for you to opt for a technology that can manage and handle your operations with utmost ease. Right from maintaining the track of the inventory to automating the order updates to integrating with the leading logistics players, you can perform an array of tasks.

Let’s hop on and understand the processes and steps to solve the operational challenges in order, inventory and logistics management.

1. Inventory Management Solutions in the UAE

Be it centralizing inventory to analyze the inventory levels and stockouts, or updating the inventory from offline, online, and warehouse in real-time, a centralized Inventory Management System – like Unicommerce – will empower you to understand the depth of multichannel and omnichannel retail. Moreover, with inventory management software you will be able to:

• Assess and update on virtual, and actual stock across multiple sales channels in real-time
• Integrate offline and online inventory seamlessly that eventually gives omnichannel experience to customers
• Monitor stock movements in order to build a steady stock pipeline and disbursement across all the sales platforms
• Synchronize stock automatically in order to ensure accurate stock visibility that eventually improves sales and controls order cancellations
• Rotate stock to address multichannel challenges, such as loss of freshness in the stock, old stock, damage, holding the cost of dead or unmoving stock

2. Order Management Solutions in the UAE

An intelligently deployed multichannel sales tactic doubles up the sales volume with the addition of an order management system. The order fulfillment software enables quick order processing even during the situations – products of mixed prices, and varied nature of orders (fragile/inflammable/expensive).

If you are planning to employ a multichannel order management system, you should opt for a solution like Unicommerce, which ensures a 100% fulfillment rate!

The following are the features that a scalable order management system enables:

• Handle bulk orders; right from the order creation in various internal systems and marketplaces to invoice and label printing and shipping arrangement
• Handle unified orders across all the sales channels to process orders faster while saving your time and resources so that you can focus on your business expansion
• Ensure brand loyalty and grow repeat customers base across multiple touchpoints
• Reduce time in the processing of orders, thereby hastening the reverse logistics process

Apart from that, you should also utilize services such as multi-fulfillment centers (MFC) that are designed and curated to cater to the needs of your customers!

3. Logistics Management Solutions in the UAE

Being one of the crucial tasks in the process of operations management, logistics not only helps you fulfill orders faster, but you can also enhance the customers’ experience with improved delivery services. To manage logistics in the UAE, you need the following listed logistics management solutions:

• Outsource experienced logistics professionals to ensure fast and efficient delivery of orders

  Employ local delivery agents who are familiar with the city’s nooks & crannies so that they can deliver seamlessly in the absence of postal codes

  Leverage marketplace platforms such as noon.com, which has invented a geotagging system that captures the location of the customer automatically

  Join hands with full-stack eCommerce enablement platforms like Unicommerce as they provide logistics integrations with world-class last-mile delivery platforms in the UAE.

  While the e-commerce industry in the UAE is on the brink of a massive shift due to changing consumer preferences, it’s imperative for you as a seller to understand the upcoming challenges & their solutions. Why? Because your operations are the fundamental of your business, and if you brace yourself against all the challenges then you will surely be able to accelerate your business growth, and who ain’t looking for that?

Related read –

• Different Selling Models of Amazon & Noon: How to Handle Selling?
• What are Biggest Business Challenges Faced by UAE’s Fashion and Retail Brands?
• How to Sell on Noon?
• How to Sell on Amazon in the Middle East (The UAE and Saudi Arabia)?

The post Order, Inventory, and Logistics Management in the UAE – Challenges & Solutions appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Affected services may take some time to get back to the normal cycle of business even after the lockdown period is over, however, it is evident that the graph will rise once people are back to their daily routines, not being restricted to stay home anymore. And to strategize around such possible behaviour of consumers becomes highly important. 

Road to Recovery for eCommerce and Retail Industry Through Automation

It is normal for you to look for answers on how to proceed once the lockdown is over and we at Unicommerce have constantly been monitoring the situation, taking updates on all new establishments, figuring out ways by which SMEs, brands and e-commerce retailers can cope up with the effects and today we are here with 4 key strategies for you to effectively plan out a future roadmap of your business. 

Read: How Oryvo Achieved Maximized Efficiency and Minimized Workload with the Robust Technology Solutions of Unicommerce!

1. Full Automation for Supply Chain Operations

Complete automation of supply chain operations has always been a top priority for most businesses to speed up processes and reach exponential growth, but now it has turned into a necessity. 

The most important aspect of getting e-commerce businesses back on track will be strengthening of your warehouse and logistics processes. Automation of warehouse operations and real-time updates of the delivery progress helps companies focus on rapid actions ensuring there are no cases of out-of-stock items or delayed deliveries. 

Constant checks on stock-keeping units, SKUs, maintenance and uninterrupted order processing are all positive aspects of onboarding automation. Delivery of items, all the way to the last mile can be done by implementing specific logistics guidelines, which include technological driven support such as live updates and efficient tracking of products, delivery through drones managed by a team sitting remotely at various locations and turning inventory systems digital.

As ‘contactless deliveries’ have become quite the trend and a rather important practice to ensure the safety of both employees and customers, enabling doorstep deliveries will ensure happy customer experience along with loyalty attached to the brand.  This could be achieved via integrating with high-end logistics partners that ensure efficient management of orders and deliveries will prove beneficial. 

2. Focus on Shifting to Omnichannel Commerce

Omnichannel retail commerce, although new to the Indian market, has now gained traction and continues to be adopted by major brands and businesses. The lockdown phase could not have made a better case for this method to be implemented as increased demand for essential goods and services can be dealt with, only when you have a presence not only at a single platform but everywhere possible.

Prior to the lockdown, the eCommerce volumes in India have seen a 51% increase in the overall consumption, making it the highest amongst other geographies around the globe in terms of online shopping. A smartphone in every hand, with hundreds of platforms to buy from, all contributed to this huge flow of demand and consumer growth was seen throughout this time making it more critical for businesses to practice omnichannel presence to ensure a consistent approach to manage orders, inventory and retail stores post the lockdown period.

The brands that implement omnichannel retail solutions have not only seen an increase in sales, but ensure that the hyperlocal delivery model enables enhanced customer experience leading to higher brand loyalty.

3. Diversifying Supply Sources and Right Stock Prioritization for Dispatches

Halt in services has caused piled up stocks in warehouses and manufacturing plants and these stocks will need first attention as soon as operations go back to normal once the lockdown is over. To restrict having dead stocks it’ll be viable to prioritize stocks as per their date of expiration which will help in a regular order processing cycle.

Apart from that, the negative of having only a single source for supplies has resulted in stock outs for the demanded services as well, and so focusing on finding multiple sources of supply will enable you to handle situations like these in a better way in the future. 

Read: Unicommerce’s New Age D2C and Omnichannel Solutions empowered Chumbak to boost sales across 58+ Retail Stores with a 99.99%+ fulfillment rate

For you to be able to meet demands, keeping multiple sources to collect stocks from and moving them fast before they expire (especially for FMCG, Cosmetics and Pharma industry) can help you maintain uninterrupted services. 

Getting back on track, consumer’s demand will increase gradually and once that happens you will need to be all ready and updated with all your stocks to avoid any further delays. Thus, it is imperative that the warehouse management solution that you implement should provide technologically advanced features such as Batching, FIFO and Cycle Count to ensure that your warehouse operations will run smoothly and restrict any more interruptions in your business. 

4. Increase your Customer Services & Enhance Customer Experience

In these times, personalization is key. Each and every customer needs to feel that they are heard and can reach out to your business with all their issues. Customer care support has been a part of organizations for long but the change in dynamics caused by social distancing and people being locked up in their homes, the burden increases as customers would have a lot of time in their hands to register their concerns, and your lack of connection can prove fatal.

Brands need to incorporate strategies that will help them create a strong social presence and focus on developing products and services based on consumer requirements. The customer care systems will need to incorporate a deep and highly integrated backend system and this will be possible by introducing ERPs/CRMs that are deeply integrated with order and warehouse management systems (WMS) to ensure real-time communication with consumers and drive focus to what services are highly required from your end to the consumer. These practices will not only save your business but help it venture into better business opportunities.

In Conclusion 

Getting back on track will surely take time, but with the right tools and solutions by your side and a well-planned strategy plan to lead entire supply chain operations will help you build up slowly but steadily. 

Unicommerce has pledged to stand by all the MSMEs and brands to help them focus on building up while being the one-stop technology solution for all their business requirements. 

Your business should be able to focus on building up operations post the lockdown is over and the solutions provided by Unicommerce including inventory management software, warehouse management and order management, which can be easily integrated with any ERP/CRM seamlessly (currently integrated with 100+ partners) to ensure that you have complete visibility of your business operations all from a single unified platform can prove to be highly dependable.

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The post Recover from the Corona Effect: 4 Key Strategies for eCommerce and Retail Brands appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Multichannel retailing has opened many gateways for the retailers to reach the consumers and establish higher brand visibility and sales. Every channel has its challenges and at the same time provides an opportunity for the retailers to create a positive and uniform shopping experience for the consumers. The multichannel retailing imperatively needs an efficient, centralised and automated e-commerce solution to meet the opportunities and challenges of the market.

Although the consumers may shop from various channels, for them the brand is one entity. Hence the shopping experience needs to be consistent and pleasant across all the channels. Overall brand experience and convenience of shopping are the principal determining factor for consumers when they choose a channel to shop, whether they buy from a physical or online store. Here are some novel trends emerging and defining the multichannel retailing.

8 Latest Trends in Multichannel Retail

Trend 1. The online and offline shopping experience is blurring

The consumers are no more apprehensive about the difference between an electronic or physical mode of shopping. The shoppers who visit brick-and-mortar stores browse for the same product on other channels to find out quick availability, price, additional discounts and other offers.

Trend 2. Dynamic order fulfilment

Flexible order fulfilment is trending in the multichannel retailing, as the consumers are seeking convenient payment and product delivery options.

• Buy online and pick from the store

Many shoppers prefer to place an order online and pick up at the nearest store. The consumers can benefit from the opportunity to see the product before actually buying it and avoid paying immediately online.

• Buy online and return to store

The trend of exploring hassle-free returns handling is on the rise. One of them is, the buyer can return a wrong order or an unwanted purchase made online directly to the store. Often, the store sales staff convince the consumer for an exchange than return. The situation also offers the opportunity to cross-sell to the consumer.

• Delivering out of stock products

Here is an efficient way of handling stock-outs than losing a customer. If a store is running out of stock of a particular product the consumer is looking for, the sales staff can arrange for the delivery of the product directly from the centralised warehouse or a store. The gesture enhances the brand image and ensures brand loyalty.

• Place order in store and get home delivered

The physical stores can save hugely on the property cost by stocking fast-moving products and having online or physical catalogues or a sample of slow-moving or seasonal products. The consumers will have extended options to shop for the product they like (though it is not in the store) and get it home delivered. The retailers will neither lose the sales opportunity nor run the risk of over-stocking or waste storage space.

Accelerate Order Fulfillment with Multichannel Order Management System

Trend 3. Channel hopping is the norm

The consumers are finicky and channel-hop more frequently. Rather than feeling intimated by this trend, the retailers can see it as an opportunity to create an ecosystem of intermingling sales and service channels that yield far outreaching results in the future.

Trend 4. Growing need to have a centralised product data

The digital media has taken the retail industry by storm with its incessant consumer reach. At the same time, the consumers are preferential about when and how they want to be reached. This trend has given rise to the scenario where the product marketing initiative and inventory across multiple channels of sales should match, providing the desired consistent experience of shopping to the consumer. This trend calls for consistency and clarity in market communication and stock availability across channels.

Trend 5. Instant delivery

Consumers are keen to have immediate delivery options for same-day delivery, next-hour delivery. This trend is here to stay and drive the order shipment function of the multichannel retailers. This instant delivery trend requires the businesses to invest in a centralised operations management solution to enable quickest possible ways to pick, pack and ship the orders.

Trend 6. Smartphones are the new purchase points

Smartphone users are growing in number and prefer to shop from their phones with flexible delivery options as mentioned earlier. The mobile technology will enable the shoppers and the retailers to forge a seamless platform for buying and selling.

Trend 7. Rise of social networking sites as new marketplaces

Facebook, Pinterest, Bing and Google will soon become mainstream channels for sales for the retailers as increasing volume of consumers are visiting the websites for a product review, shopping experience, service and other interactions. The social commerce is the growing trend in the multichannel retailing scenario.

Trend 8. Unified sales channels

The multiple channels of sales are no more exclusive to each other. They overlap each other and can be effectively used to provide seamless brand experience to the consumers.

The multichannel retailers need to adopt innovative strategies to cater to the changing consumer preferences to be able to efficiently handle the tall orders of multichannel retailing.

Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales

The post Top 8 Latest Trends in Multichannel Retail in 2023 appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Ever since Amazon entered the country in June last year, ecommerce in India has shifted dramatically towards the online marketplace model. Because India did not allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in online retail, the global giant restricted itself to being a sales channel for Indian retailers, without stocking and selling its own merchandise.

Amazon made a virtue out of that necessity, causing the marketplace model to catch on in a big way. Indian ecommerce biggies like Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Jabong have joined the race to sign on retailers across India to their platforms.

Sellers are now spoilt for choice: 60 online marketplaces in India vie for their attention, ranging from specialized ones, like the recently-launched engineering goods portal Tolexo to the large diversified ones, like Flipkart. This presents great opportunities for small retailers to hawk their wares across multiple channels. But it has also made things much more complicated for them.

Sellers now struggle to keep track of invoicing, inventories, deliveries, payments, catalogs and so on for one channel – now, imagine doing that for five or more places where your merchandise is listed.

Technology is the obvious answer to deal with this complex web of ecommerce. But a retailer lacks the resources, time and focus to develop sophisticated software in-house and upgrade it constantly.

Jazzmyride, a portal for auto accessories, faced this problem two years after they started up. They wanted to scale up without sullying their user experience. That’s when they turned to a SaaS (software as a service) product called Uniware.

Less is more

The software gives retailers a single panel to track orders on multiple channels. Inventories are synced across all of them. SKUs (stock keeping units) are allocated automatically to each channel depending on how fast a product is moving there, to avoid both idle inventories and stock-outs. It also integrates with more than 25 shipping services for timely deliveries.

Jazzmyride is among 1,000 merchants who have signed up so far with the Delhi-based Unicommerce, which came up with the SaaS solution for them late last year. One of the four partners in the firm, Manish Gupta, who was in Bangalore a few days back to open a southern hub of Unicommerce, told Tech in Asia that most of the retailers on their platform come from Delhi. With the number of online retailers across India expected to exceed  100,000 within two years, Unicommerce is spreading its net: its target is 15 percent of the Indian market, before going global.

Manish Gupta believes their product, hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Singapore, will help small retailers in all multi-channel markets. In the US and Europe, ChannelAdvisor and BrightPearl provide similar services. But Unicommerce’s experience in an emerging market like India with its diversity and large population may give them some unique insights.

Fixing payments

Right now, the focus is on adding new features to the product. Payment reconciliation will be an important pain-reliever, because following up on delayed or missed payments is time-consuming. This feature is currently undergoing beta testing.

Automatically updating catalogs across multiple channels, each one with its own idiosyncratic on-boarding process, would remove another headache for sellers.Gupta summed up: “We are in this space to smoothen the relationship between marketplaces and vendors.”

Already, Unicommerce processes over a million orders a month, which represents 10-12 percent of ecommerce in India, excluding travel. It has integrated more than 45 marketplaces on its panel, and vendors can simply choose as many of them as they want to be on.

Large-scale SaaS success stories from India are rare, but Unicommerce does have competition. Goa-based Browntape, which recently secured seed funding, also offers a multi-channel order fulfillment and inventory syncing solution.

Unicommerce too received funding last year from Nexus Venture Partners for its expansion, and hopes to maintain its lead. The company was founded in 2012 by three batchmates from IIT Delhi, who shared the same wing of their hostel. Ankit Pruthi, Karun Singla, and Vibhu Garg went their separate ways after college, before coming together again to start up Unicommerce.

They wanted to apply their technical expertise to solving problems in a buzzing domain, and ecommerce was taking off in India. They found a mentor, Ankush Mehra, with 20 years’ experience in retail, to help them come to grips with the nitty-gritty of order and inventory management.

Uniware changes its shape

When they came up with Uniware in 2012, it was a warehouse management system. Their customers were large ecommerce companies like Snapdeal and Groupon. Last year, when the marketplace model got going, they shifted their focus to solving the problems of small retailers in a multi-channel market, and Uniware took on a new avatar.

The marketplace model gave many sellers the chance to opt for drop-shipping: their margins improved when, instead of holding inventory, they took large orders on the site and arranged for shipments to customers directly from a wholesaler or marketplace.

Unicommerce co-founder Ankit Pruthi explained to Tech in Asia:

“When we observed the percentage of drop-shipments increasing in the industry, we went to visit several drop-ship sellers. That experience was really enlightening and we learnt a lot of their pain points and how they could be solved through technology. We did exactly that and came up with a technology product for sellers.”

It was around then that Pruthi roped in Manish Gupta as a fourth partner. Gupta had cut his teeth on launching and growing IndiaMart, a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace connecting buyers and sellers from the early days of the commercial internet in India. Unicommerce needed his expertise when it adapted to online marketplaces last year.

Overcoming technophobia

It took some persuading for marketplaces to work with Unicommerce. Gupta said:

“Every marketplace likes to keep their vendor information close to the chest. So that made it difficult at the outset. But eventually it was driven by the market. Just yesterday a marketplace approached us, saying they wanted to collaborate with us because so many of their vendors were using the Unicommerce panel.”

The bigger challenge, according to Pruthi, is getting small businesses to overcome their technophobia in adopting SaaS. “We’re resolving this by training them to use the product,” he said.

Going forward, Gupta sees consolidation happening in the Indian ecommerce space on the lines of Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra recently. But even if there are only three or four large marketplaces left standing in the end, small retailers will need even smarter automated systems to keep up with newer models of ecommerce in a fast-changing landscape. And these sellers would increasingly turn to SaaS providers like Unicommerce to help them keep up with technology.

The post Unicommerce is On a Mission to Help Sellers Navigate India’s Ecommerce Labyrinth appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Source : http://planbmatters.com/unicommerce-strike-the-right-cord-in-e-commerce/

They dreamt of starting a company 8 years back but they couldn’t do it for one or the other reason. When they started Unicommerce, it not only became one of the 50 most promising cool startups of the year 2014 but also one of the fastest growing ecommerce management software & fulfillment solutions in India. Unicommerce offers a tech platform (cloud-based solution)to ecommerce companies and to sellers, who are selling on multiple market places – enabling them to manage their order, inventory, and warehouses at a centralized place.

They are Ankit Pruthi (CEO), Karun Singla (CTO), and Vibhu Garg (COO), founders of Unicommerce, founded in 2012. With an intention to set up a company, they quit their jobs sometime in October 2011. While serving their notice period, they thought what idea to implement. They took 3 months to come up with an idea of inventory and warehouse management, and within few months they developed a product Uniware. They decided to launch it and the response from the market was tremendous.

In the next one year they reached out to every mid size and large size company in the country, and by December 2013, there were around 50 enterprise clients doing 20,000 orders a day through their system.

During this period, they diverted their focus to the problems of small retailers (SME’s), who were struggling to keep track of invoices, inventories, deliveries, payments, and catalogs where their merchandise listed in a multi-channel market. To solve this, they developed a sophisticated solution that used SaaS (software as a service) model. This solution gave retailers a single panel to track orders on multiple channels. It can integrate with more than 25 shipping services for timely deliveries.

Right now, they have more than 250 clients – enterprises plus SMEs. And collectively they would be processing close to 30,000 to 35,000 orders a day through their system.

Within a year of start up, they received funding from Nexus Venture Partners – India’s leading Venture Capital fund.

Anup Gupta, MD, Nexus Venture Partners said, “Unicommerce is fulfilling a growing market need in India and overseas for simple, easy to deploy and use order, inventory management and fulfillment platform for online and offline businesses. We are excited about the opportunity and delighted to partner with the bright and nimble team at Unicommerce.”

The biggest challenge, according to Pruthi, is getting small businesses to overcome their technophobia in adopting SaaS. “We’re resolving this by training them to use the product.” he said.

Unicommerce has plans to expand its business globally along with better penetration in Indian markets.

The post Unicommerce Strikes the Right Chord in Ecommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

If your eCommerce business is soaring, a strong realization must have occurred to you that, everything cannot be under your control at the same time. Various supply chain operations need a kind of supervision which demand ample time and expertise as well. But you just can’t keep on hiring employees in-house for every task. Obviously, that won’t be feasible for your business which has just started to make profits. Also, manually handling time-bound tasks allows for more chances of mistakes. The consumer’s demands today are high and mighty and to cater to being a brand you can not afford to have errors while delivering products.

An eRetailer has a lot of tasks to do – starting with supply chain management, inventory, shipping and returns, product catalog, customer service strategy, and marketing – all these key components that make up an online business.
So how can business owners focus on completing several equally important tasks at hand? The solution is simple: By outsourcing and using technology.

Think about it.

You Sell on Online Marketplaces and Pay Commission.

Marketplaces like Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart, etc take care of attracting the large crowd, they make all the noise and advertise on all the online and offline channels. They provide the infrastructure and take care of all the technical aspect of ensuring a functional website which can sustain large number of visitors. So, you do understand that – it’s better for you to let them do the marketing and handle technical aspects and share the profits with them instead of wasting your resources on it.

You Rely on the Logistics Companies for Delivery

Because that’s not your core business. Exactly. You use their service and you pay for it. They have the domain expertise, they have the experience and they will do the job better, cheaper than you could possibly do.

You Depend on the Vendor for Packaging Material

You could have arranged all those cardboard boxes or plastic bags. But you don’t. You just buy these from Dyna Corp or such companies. Because that makes sense. You are not into the packaging business. You are a seller of apparel or jewelry or whichever things you deal in.

There comes a point in your company’s lifecycle when you must decide between using technology or continuing to do manage all operations manually. Read on to know why you should use technology to optimize your Order Fulfillment Process.

Order Fulfillment is Vital for your Ecommerce Business 

It’s time for you to understand the complexity, the scale, and the importance of order fulfillment. Then you will be able to appreciate the fact that Order fulfillment is a full-time job on its own. If you are hell bent on doing it, then your core business will suffer.

Let’s take a deep dive and understand the finer nuances of order fulfillment.

They include the following – 

Order syncing: Receiving customer orders from the various marketplaces/platforms that you sell on.

Inventory: Before you even start receiving orders from Marketplaces, you need to ensure there is enough inventory in place and that it reflects correctly on all marketplaces.

Warehousing: Storing of products and retrieval of items according to the orders.

Vendors and Purchases: If the required product is not in stock, raise a PO from the right vendor.

Packing and Labeling: Get the orders packed and labeled.

Invoicing & Billing: Preparing the invoice / bill to the customer of their product.

Shipment and Tracking: The delivery of the goods to the customer and tracking till the delivery is done successfully.

Returns: Managing the return logistics in case the goods are not accepted by customers. Or, the product is damaged and not accepted by the multiple channels. 

Imagine doing all the above steps-    

For Every order, 

From Every marketplace that you sell on, 

Every single day!!!!

Order fulfillment is So important for your business, that you should NOT do it at all! 

You shouldn’t try to do it all by yourself (manually) as it turns out to be hectic while dealing with bulk orders or during seasonal sales. Let’s see what happens when you do it. Have a look at Why you should take it seriously and not treat it like just another task.

• Allot Inventory Manually to multiple marketplaces  –

That means – You will have to block some inventory on each marketplace. So if you blocked 50 SKUs at one where demand turned out to be low and you blocked 50 SKUs on the different marketplace where demand was too high. In each case, because of Inventory blocking, you lose out on sales and simultaneously the cost of carrying unsold inventory rises.

• Manually Syncing the orders –

There would be a time lag between order placed and you manually processing it. As you will not be able to sync in real-time unless you are awake 24/7. You will take a periodic dump. For no reason, you have added one more day to the delivery date. The customer will not appreciate this at all.

• Manual handling of the warehouse –

If the stock in the warehouse is not updated in real-time, you don’t have confidence while accepting orders. It might happen that after taking the orders, you realize it’s out-of-stock. This increases the lead time as extra time is needed to deliver items or even you may have to cancel the order after receiving it. This leads to lower customer satisfaction. 

• No holistic view of entire order journey

It’s easily possible to lose track of some orders due to human error while manually managing the inventory. No real-time connection with multiple vendors – you will miss out on some sale opportunity or sometimes you won’t be able to fulfill orders after promising. Your business suffers.

• Printing Invoice, Labeling manually –

It’s human nature to make mistakes. But your customers are not forgiving if you misplace their orders because of wrong invoicing or labeling.

Every instance above means one more unhappy or unsatisfied customer. In the e-Commerce world filled with fickle minded customers who are spoilt for choice and where loyalty runs low and reputation is all that matters. So this could be potential business suicide.

So how can automated order fulfillment software help you

By now, I am sure you are convinced about the necessity of using technology for order fulfillment.

If you still can’t decide then you should probably go through the benefits listed below-  

Save costs: It can bring your processes on track from day one and cuts manpower costs considerably.

Focus on Growing your business: It helps you to focus your time and energy on your core business activities while an integrated system manages the logistics and challenged in the order fulfillment process.

Redirect saved costs to Customers to increase loyalty: With fickle customer loyalty and continuous competitive pressure on prices, you can redirect the saved money to offer attractive pricing.

Eliminate administrative/operational headaches: There are a lot of back-office headaches and hassles associated with each process and which can be done away with, increasing personnel & business productivity

Increase customer satisfaction: Delivering the right products at the right time in a way that is consistent with customer’s expectations, time and again is what will garner loyalty and referrals from customers. It is an excellent way to increase customer retention.

Time to Evaluate your Daily Habits

You need to be honest with yourself and ask yourself how much time in the day are you spending on the order fulfillment process – tracking orders, shipments, inventory management, etc. As a retailer, almost all your time should be spent on core business activities such as strategic planning, marketing, product selection, and customer relations. But do you even spend 30% on your core business while selling online? Probably Not.

The reason that you chose to sell on an e-commerce platform is to avoid the huge costs involved in setting up a physical brick & mortar set-up, marketing and advertising to customers, resource investment and operational expenses. However in building the in-house capabilities for order fulfillment if you are still incurring capital investment in developing the technology, recruiting and training IT specialists, then it certainly defeats the entire purpose of selling online.

The need of the hour is to focus on your core competencies and let technology products take care of the rest. Unicommerce is one such software that will look after your eCommerce business operations entirely. With the single dashboard and single login, you can manage all your order syncing smoothly and with the proper ERP integration with your software, to make your experience smooth and satisfactorily.  Look for your convenient plans right now! 

The post Dear Multi Channel eTailers – Order Fulfilment is None of Your Business appeared first on unicommerce.com.

When you are selling ‘Experiences’, every little thing counts.

Jazzmyride is India’s largest online seller of Car and Bike accessories. Though it started barely 3 years ago, it has been on an amazing ride since then. Not only did they go from 0 to 7000 in terms products range on their website very quickly, they have bagged exclusive online selling rights of some of the most reputed global brands like Turtle Wax (USA), ABRO (USA), Xenos.

For Jazzmyride, accessories were never just accessories. For them, accessories were about ease and style. They were about giving a newer experience, a better experience to their customers. They were selling ‘Experiences’ to people, neither products, nor service. And when you are into such business, every little thing counts. Products being available (in stock) and timely deliveries – such things or the absence of such things definitely contribute to making of that experience.

While scaling up their operations, one of the biggest challenges for Mr Sunil Dhingra, the founder, was to retain that great experience, retain their brand, their positioning. But this had to be achieved in a cost efficient manner. They wanted to do it with as less hands as possible. That was possible only if they could automate tedious man hours consuming activities. Technology was the answer.

“Cloud based Unicommerce allows us to think beyond boundaries and build a business not bound by any location constraints”

Indian E-Commerce industry is toughest to be in.
Only the most Comprehensive and the Best E-Commerce Product can survive in this industry. 

Unfortunately, Jazzmyride, could not find the Tech solution which could solve their problems. They explored many products, even tried one American Software product. But it failed the scalability test after they crossed 1 lakh orders. They realized that every e-commerce industry in the world is not the same. In fact, Indian e-commerce industry is very tough to be in. India competes with US in geography, competes with China in population, and competes with Europe in diversity – that’s exactly why Indian e-commerce is toughest to be in. Any product for Indian e-commerce has to be very comprehensive in terms of depth and breadth of scope and features. Product which worked in India can work anywhere else in the world. But the same is not true for product made outside India.
That’s why Sunil started looking for a product with global standards of quality, tailored for Indian e-commerce industry and made by guys who understand technology and e-commerce like the back of their hand. And he found all these three things with Uniware, the product by Unicommerce team.

During the Demo of Unicommerce, Jazzmyride was delighted to see Unicommerce automatically fetching orders from Multiple marketplaces and updating inventories on all those channels. They found this feature so valuable that they were ready to pay us the full amount just for that. That’s why they were pleasantly surprised that they got the ‘rest of the features’ without any additional cost. Of course, there were many sophisticated and useful features in the ‘rest’, which they later found out once they started using Unicommerce!Predictably, their adoption of Unicommerce had an immediate impact on their dispatch SLAs adherence. With Uniware they were touching 97%, a figure they did not think was possible at the scale they were operating at. Not just that, but even while growing rapidly, they could cut down manpower cost by a whopping 30% ensuring better profitability numbers.

“The performance of Unicommerce has gone from Good to Great since we started using it.”

Better Numbers is Just Half the Story!

Apart from these quantifiable effects, Sunil vouches for some unquantifiable but immensely important results of Unicommerce adoption. Sunil feels that Unicommerce has enabled Jazzmyride to be

Agile – even at this scale
Flexible – even while using a process driven system
Light – even with increasing work load
Focused – even while geographically scattered

The two way auto syncing with multiple channels brings motion, pace to the work. It keeps things moving instead of getting stuck at any place waiting for human intervention. That keeps the organization agile. The depth of control that Uniware allows its users while using any features makes them feel empowered rather than feeling restricted by systemic approach. The numerous custom fields allows every company to bend some rules thereby giving them the flexibility required in handling off the track cases.

Anything that can be automated has been automated in Uniware. That’s why you can get so much done with very less manpower, keeping your team light. And Being on Cloud, all you need is a browser to manage your business, from anywhere, any time of the day. This factor becomes increasingly important when, like for Jazzmyride, when you are dealing with multiple warehouses, vendors, dealers all scattered geographically, on everyday basis. You will never feel over whelmed or lost by the geographical spread of your business. Uniware enables you to be focused, not get side-tracked, lose sight of priorities, what’s important. In fact, Sunil has been quite impressed by the fact that Uniware allows them to work so closely with vendors, partners and dealers. And he credits Unicommerce for helping him implement newer, out of the box business models successfully. In his own words,

“Any e-retailer worth his salt, who is selling on multiple e-commerce websites, NEEDS Unicommerce. Period.”

The post Despite growing, this is how Jazzmyride stays Agile, Focussed, Flexible and Light appeared first on unicommerce.com.