From the growing consumption of online marketplaces to e-tailers going digital from their brick and mortar stores, the entire region is flooded with the demand for e-commerce. As per e-Conomy SEA 2021 report by Google, 40 million more internet users came online in 2021 while bringing the digital penetration to 75% in SEA. Additionally, 350 million consumers in SEA have made at least one purchase online last year. 

So do you not want to leverage this underlying opportunity? 

Are you looking forward to starting your e-commerce journey? Or maybe you are looking to expand your e-commerce business in the region? If yes, then Shopee is the right fit for your business. 

Now the question is, what exactly is Shopee? 

With absolutely no commission and listing fee, Shopee is a mobile-only e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia that pays extra attention to enhancing both buyers’ and sellers’ shopping experiences. Covering seven markets of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, Shopee has its presence all around Southeast Asia. 

The marketplace has been predicted to be the top player in the coming years as it records almost 457.9 million visits per month, making it one of the leading platforms in the SEA. Additionally, the third-quarter report by Sea Limited documents that Shopee recorded gross orders of 1.7 billion and a GMV (gross merchandise value) of $16.8 billion.

Why should you sell on Shopee?

Shopee is a kind of marketplace where sellers give extra attention to their brand reputation as there’s a scope for enhancing buyers’ shopping experience to the most. Want to know more about why Shopee is the best for your e-commerce business? We have got you covered!

1. Zero financial stress: With a commission-free and no listing fee model, Shopee offers you an amazing marketplace without any financial overload. However, if you want to expose your portfolio to a wider audience, you can always go for paid advertising. 
2. Broader networking: Shopee has a broad presence across ASEAN countries. So if you choose this marketplace, you’re going to represent your brand to a border customer base, which is a good opportunity for brand expansion.
3. Free shipping: With Shopee, you can enjoy the perks of no shipping cost, selling your products at cheaper prices while luring more customers than you can gain via any other marketplace. (Note: Shipping may differ by country and regulations.)
4. Low transaction fee: Shopee involves a transaction fee of 1.5%, which is very cheap when compared to the commission of other marketplaces, which revolves around 2% to 8%. 
5. Gives multiple payment options: Sellers can offer a plethora of options to their customers as Shopee accepts bank transfers, ATM transfers, Debit and Credit cards payment, Over-the-counter (OTC) payments, Cash on Delivery (COD). 
6. Supports multiple languages: Shopee offers a truly multilingual experience by serving operations in six languages, making it best at the global level. 

Hot tip: If you are confused about what products you should sell on Shopee, then here are a few top-selling product categories: Fashion, Home and Living, Baby products, Mobile phones, and accessories, Health and beauty, etc. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Seller on Shopee

There are two ways to sell on Shopee. You can sell on the platform either through the app or via the website. Both ways are quite easy and similar to each other. Let’s first check how to sell via the Shopee app.

#1 Start Selling On Shopee Via App

Step 1 – Click on the sign-up button and put the important details while verifying your phone number. 

Hot tip: It’s important to provide your number, else you won’t be able to sell your products. 

Step 2 – List your products by going to the Me tab and clicking Start Selling. There, you can select Add New Product where you can insert product images and information related to your product, such as product name, details (size, type, etc.), category, attributes (price, stock, variations, weight), and shipping details. Once it’s done, click on Submit.

Hot tip: Add high-quality images because you know how customers love to get in-depth visual details of the product they want to buy. It increases the chance of selling. Moreover, you must put emphasis on curating precise and concise product description that has the power to catch attention. 

Step 3 – Complete your shop set up by going to Seller Assistant and then Shop Profile. There, choose your Shop Name, which should be both unique and easy to memorize. Then add up to 5 images or videos of your brand. The last step is to add the description of your shop, highlighting your USPs, history, and shipping location. The next step is to Save. 

Read how Businesses are growing with Unicommerce –
How PayO Asia achieved 10X Growth in Sales?
How Ellana Cosmetics achieved 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rates?

#2 Start Selling On Shopee Via Seller Centre

Step 1 – Start by creating an account on shopee.com.my and click on Sign Up. After that, add and verify your phone number and email ID. 

Step 2 – The next step is to set up your shop. For that, you need to go to the Seller Centre where you can go to Shop Profile. Then you need to choose the shop name, which is unique and easy to memorize. After that add up to 5 images and videos. Lastly, you need to add a description, highlighting your shop’s history, USPs, and location. 

Step 3 – 

• Your next step is to add your product. Go to the Seller Centre and click on Add New Product. There you can add the product name and three categories will appear automatically. You can either choose them or configure them as per your choice. Then click Next. 
• After that, you need to add information about your product, including Product Name, Product Description, and Product Attributes. 
• Then insert the price, stock count, and variations (if any) for your product. Your next step is to take high-quality photos. 
• Lastly, update shipping settings, such as weight, dimension (parcel size), and shipping fee. Then Save and Publish once everything is done. 

Hot tip: Shopee offers you multiple fulfillment models, so you can choose any of the below models as per your preference.

• Fulfilled by Shopee
• Third-party fulfillment centers

4 Ways to Manage your Operations and Increase Sales on Shopee

The most important aspect of selling over Shopee is the way you manage your backend operations. If you know how to smoothly manage them, you can seamlessly increase your sales. Here are a few tips for you to grow your business sales on Shopee. 

1. Manage multiple integrations via a single platform: Right from accounting to CRM, you can perform a plethora of tasks by integrating your Shopee with a supply chain technology platform like Unicommerce. With multiple integrations, such as ERP/POS, accounting, and more, you can manage your order and inventory management easily. 
2. Track your performance using analytics: Choose a platform that offers your in-depth reports and dashboard so that you can analyze your orders, inventory status, returns status, and more. Some platforms offer inventory snapshots to let you learn the availability of stock in the warehouse. 
3. Expand product portfolio: Insert a variety of products while updating your product line with a catalog manager. You can bring diversity to your products by seamlessly syncing your catalog using a backend management system. 
4. Manage customer relationships: Track your order routinely and offer an immersive shopping experience to your customers by fulfilling their orders timely. This lets you maintain a long-term relationship with your customers, increasing the customer retention rate. 

To conclude it all, if you are serious about starting your own e-commerce business or expanding your product line in Southeast Asia, then there’s no better platform than Shopee. While it has a presence across buyers in Southeast Asia, it offers many benefits. Moreover, you must optimize your offerings via tips we have curated at the end. Apart from backend operations, you can indulge in marketing and account management activities to enhance your virtual store, which is necessary to pull off buyers’ attention on Shopee.

Explore our platforms:

1. Integrated logistics management system
2. Automated payment reconciliation system

Recommended read:

1. How To Sell on Amazon in the Middle East?
2. Top Multi-Warehouse Management Challenges & Solutions to Overcome in UAE & Saudi Arabia
3. How can you overcome Supply Chain Challenges in the Philippines?
4. Order, Inventory, And Logistics Management In The UAE – Challenges & Solutions
5. How to Sell on Lazada?

The post How To Sell On Shopee: The Ultimate Guide To Sell On The Marketplace [Updated 2024] appeared first on unicommerce.com.

A good e-commerce warehouse management system (WMS) helps you in receiving the inventory, placing them on the designated shelf; improve the picking and shipping of orders and get real-time information on the inventory.  Warehouse management softwares can be a standalone application or it can be integrated into your existing ERP system as well.

Utilising a strong Warehouse management software can immensely benefit your eCommerce and retail business.  Some highly useful advantages include:

• Lowering Labour Costs
• Enhancing Inventory Accuracy
• Improve flexibility in operation
• Reducing errors while picking and shipping of goods
• Upgrading customer services
• Accessing real-time data

Wit these, WMS enables you to manage complete warehouse related activities including but not limited to orders, shipments, receipts and intra-warehouse movement of goods.

What are the best practices & processes for warehouse management?

So, if you are planning to opt for any management software for your new warehouse or planning to upgrade your existing system, ask these questions:

Below are 10 Key Questions one must ask before opting for any warehouse management software, to get Maximum benefits of their solutions.

1.Can it handle orders from multiple marketplaces?

You must be selling on  6-8 marketplaces all at the same time and so, it is important for any WMS solution to provide the sellers with the ability to seamlessly process orders of all marketplaces so that the inventory can be managed accordingly. 

2. Does the solution provide you inventory accuracy?

Inventory management is a big problem for sellers, particularly when you have to manage 100+ dispatches every day. Managing the inventory manually, tracking it timely and updating the stock after each day’s sales is a hectic task which when not done with complete accuracy leads to unmanaged and errorful operations. 

Any errors in inventory not only results in loss of working capital but also impacts sales volume as inventory listed on marketplaces is the key factor in determining sales for all online sellers. Thus, an automated system above a manual one to manage inventory accurately can go a long way in managing complex warehouse operations.

Read: How Dhani Services Ltd., a leading Consumer Services, has streamlined operations across 166 facilities while ensuring a 99.99%+ fulfillment rate

3. Will you be able to manage all the sections of your warehouse?

Most sellers end up doing an ad hoc management of their warehouse, causing inventory errors, stock-outs, etc. which lead up to a lot of mismanagement. It is imperative that the WMS you choose allows you to define zones, bins, locations, etc. so that your warehouse can be neatly organized. 

Your WMS solution should allow you to define zones based on product categories, product velocity (i.e. how fast or slow a particular product is selling) or any other such criteria which are important to your business.

Most leading WMS solutions still do not have a very comprehensive implementation of this requirement, but some new-age solutions like Unicommerce provide the flexibility to manage the warehouse in a very systematic manner with cycle count enabled and RFID barcode scanning to handle returns as well as maintain the serial numbers.

4. Is it compatible with various third-party hardware devices?

With increasing volumes by the minute, it becomes impossible to operate a warehouse manually. Seeing the need,  sellers have begun to invest in deploying Bluetooth-based handheld devices to automate key warehouse processes.

These handheld devices are not very expensive and can be procured anywhere in the range of Rs. 5-10k, adding a lot of value in terms of improving productivity, reducing errors and are able to recover the cost of investment in less than 6 months if used with a proper system. 

5. Does it help to optimize the picking process?

Using manual or traditional systems typically leads to a lot of inefficiencies in the picking process. Eventually, the picking staff ends up wasting time trying to locate the right product.

If they end up picking the wrong product, it only adds to the delay as they are then required to put the product back and fetch the right one for dispatch. All of this leads up to monetary losses. 

And so, it is important that the WMS solution one uses has inbuilt features like picklists, FIFO based picking etc. to ensure that picking of goods happen in an efficient manner. 

.

   Figure 1: Sample Picklist format In Unicommerce

6. How easily can you manage returns in the WMS?

For any online seller, returns are a big pain area, as it adds directly to the cost, and every seller continues to grapple with this issue. If returns are managed properly, the profitability of any seller can easily improve by 10-15%, thus it is important that the solution deployed by you is able to handle such a critical process seamlessly.

It is important that your WMS solution should be able to scan each item and identify the order against which the return is received. The solution should also be able to reconcile the returns for which the item itself is not received.

All these features are already supported in Unicommerce, making it a preferred tool for handling returns seamlessly without any hassles.

7. Does it have an access control feature?

With data theft and stock pilferage a day to day reality for most sellers, it is important that the solution you choose provides the ability to configure secure access to the system.

The solution should provide a definition of roles to the users and grant access to the users based on the roles assigned to them. The roles should also be flexible enough to map all the warehouse processes. For example, Unicommerce provides the flexibility to define up to 9 roles in its solution.

                                                               Different Roles for Different Users

8. Does it provide quality checks?

Due to the regular wear and tear in the warehouse, some stock may not always be in a sellable condition. For example, a stock may be damaged while lying in the warehouse, and the operator may discover the “bad” stock only at the time of the dispatch.

To avoid situations like this, it becomes important that the WMS you choose allows you the flexibility of doing quality testing at every key checkpoint (inbound, outbound, picking etc.).

9. Does it help in tracking shipments across multiple delivery partners?

Ecommerce sellers have to deal with various shipping providers (marketplace provided shipping, self-shipping etc.) and it’s quite troublesome to deal with multiple shipping partners.

Thus, it is important that the WMS you choose helps you track shipments across various delivery partners. In addition, the system should allow you the adaptability of defining the priority of shipping providers or build custom rules. For example, fragile items should go through courier X only, or high-value items should go through courier Y only. All this is currently supported in Unicommerce.

10. Does it provide comprehensive analytics to assess your operations?

Analytics is a powerful tool and the insights that you can draw from your WMS solution can be useful in making key business decisions related to growth, productivity, unit economics, etc. It is important that the WMS solution not only provides comprehensive data but also presents the data in an easily comprehensible manner.

Unicommerce currently supports 100+ marketplaces, carts, logistics providers, ERP & POS systems and is the first choice of over 10,000 brands, sellers and retailers to be their Warehouse Management Solutions provider.

Unicommerce allows multiple technologically advanced warehouse management solutions such as handheld, FIFO, batching, cycle count, etc., and continues to evolve its offering in this regard.

Effective warehouse management translates to having the right amount of the right product at the right location delivered just in time to satisfy customer needs at minimum cost and Unicommerce is capable of imparting that for your business.

So what are you waiting for? Register today with Unicommerce, the leading supply chain operations management to ease your daily eCommerce as well as a retail business!

Request a Demo Now!

The post Best Practices in Warehouse Management System appeared first on unicommerce.com.

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India, August 29, 2016: Lendingkart Group has announced a strategic partnership with Unicommerce, the Delhi-based multichannel order fulfillment platform. The partnership will enable Unicommerce’s consumer base to get access to collateral-free working capital loans through Lendingkart Group’s NBFC within 72 hours of application at a discounted rate. Both players make an ideal synergistic match as they have been closely involved with SME merchants and understand the immense potential that lies untapped in this segment due to inadequate financial support.

The tie-up between Lendingkart Group and Unicommerce is aimed to provide working capital loans to Unicommerce retailers. The technology-backed Lendingkart Group’s NBFC enables loan disbursement process that comprises minimal paperwork and offers collateral-free loans to online retailers within 72 hours. It assesses the creditworthiness of a candidate through API scrutiny and online data scraping to ensure credibility rather than conventional methods that promote red-tapism. The swift assessment process takes a few hours and NBFC ensures that loan amount reaches the borrower within 2-3 days of the loan application. Unicommerce retailers will be offered discounted working capital loans enabling them to increase their inventory, pay for their liabilities and scale up their businesses.

At the announcement, Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder and CEO, Lendingkart Technologies, said, “There are massive growth prospects for Indian retailers within the rapidly changing retail scenario of the country. Businesses often register losses and face challenges related to cash flows owing to their capital deficits. The tie-up with Unicommerce will help the Group to eliminate such challenges for its customer base and will moreover, enable retailers to increase their efficiency, scalability, and profitability with quick and easy working capital loans.”

Ankit Pruthi, CEO, Unicommerce said, “We understand that working capital finance is one of the key needs of SMEs in growing their business, and we believe that this partnership with Lendingkart Group will further boost our customers’ business. We are already helping the SMEs to improve their online sales through our product, and with this partnership, we are hoping to provide more avenues for growth to our customers.”

Lendingkart has developed technology tools, to provide lending solutions to lenders, which utilizes a unique mix of Big Data analytics, decision science, and other proxies to derive credit comfort and assess the creditworthiness of small business owners. Most of the credit risk analysis at the Group’s NBFC, is done digitally so that loans can be disbursed within 72 hours from the time of application.

About Lendingkart Group
Lendingkart Technologies is a fin-tech startup in the working capital space. It has developed technology tools based on big data analytics that facilitates lenders to evaluate borrowers’ credit worthiness. Aadri Infin Limited, a Lendingkart Group Company, is a non-deposit taking NBFC, offering small business loans for SMEs in India. The NBFC aims to transform small business lending by providing easy access to credit for SMEs. The NBFC uses technology and analytics tools, analyzing thousands of data points from various data sources to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses rapidly and accurately. Lendingkart Group aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows. We are currently based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but have a service reach across India. To know more, please visit http://lendingkart.com/

About Unicommerce
The SaaS based multichannel order fulfillment platform allows ecommerce merchants selling on multiple marketplaces like Snapdeal, Amazon, Jabong, Flipkart, eBay and so on, to manage their entire inventory and order fulfillment process through one single platform. In a short span of time, Unicommerce has built a strong customer base of 10,000+ sellers in more than 220 cities including big brands such as Monte Carlo, Swiss Military, Classic Polo, House of Anita Dongre, Reliance, Mahindra Retail, Carat Lane, Raymond etc. Ecommerce sellers love this product, as it helps them grow their sales, reduce costs and improve their seller ratings. For further information about the company or the product, please visit https://unicommerce.com/

Economic Times: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

Business Standard: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

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Hi everyone, I am Satya Singh from Satya Shoes. I am selling online from last two years. And it’s been one year I am doing with Unicommerce. And I would say that it’s a wonderful stuff to increase your business multiples.

I am a seller from Agra and I am doing footwear business from last 20 years. I used have a manufacturing house, but from last 3 years I am doing it online. And the best way to get online is through Unicommerce. You can start your business with no inventory.

Earlier I used to sell around 60-100 pairs of shoes on an average. But after Unicommerce, the best part is that of inventory management. I don’t have to block the inventories for different different channels.

So I can even sell a single pair of shoes across all two or three or four or five market places without blocking my money or inventory. So the best part is the inventory only that I can manage inventory without any hassle and also the order management of Unicommerce is perfect.

It’s been year now, and my business has been increased 5 times. My average selling been has reached to around 500 pairs. And I would say that it’s only due to Unicommerce due to which I am able to manage the orders and each and everything.

Thanks to Unicommerce. Specially, the team is very much dedicated. You can call the support team any time, they ready to help us out at any stage, at any issue. I got training to my staff and to me also, which was easy and hassle free.

The post Seller Success Story 2 #SellmorewithUnicommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

My name is Md. Adil. I am a shoe seller from Agra. I have been into online selling for past 3 years. And I am associated Unicommerce from last 1 year. We have family business of shoes and hence, I thought online selling would be better as we can see -these days, sellers are using online platform for their business. And also because Unicommerce is an excellent solution in online multichannel inventory management, better than the other available options in the market.

The advantage that I got from Unicommerce is their customer service, which I liked very much. Whenever, there is any issue whether technical or other, you can immediately reach them through email or call them directly for help.

Besides, through Unicommerce I am able to sell on multiple channels- as it got almost all the major channels integrated, like –Paytm, Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, obviously Snapdeal and so on. At least on the channels I am selling at are available in Unicommerce. That’s why Unicommerce is a better option for me to sell on multiple channels, for multi-management.

Another advantage of Unicommerce – it is very economic (cost effective). Spending 2-3 rupees per order, even if your product is low priced, range between of Rs.500 to Rs.600 then also it’s very economic, very much cost effective.

I don’t think, one should think twice to use Unicommerce.

The post Seller Success Story 1 #SellmorewithUnicommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

It was a grand event where ecommerce industry leaders across the globe came together to connect on a common platform to share their insights, map the industry trends and identify the underlying opportunities in the sector.

Though eTailing India named the event as “Mumbai Expo”, it was not just restricted to the exhibitions. There were sessions for Panel Discussions, Round Tables, and Workshops where the largest number of industry CEOs were present and formed the ‘eTailing India Think Tank’. Their prime objective is to drive the theme of the year, i.e., “Bridging the Gap between Policy, Trust & Infrastructure “. Besides, the Think Tanks’ is on a mission to facilitate and exchange the best ideas & practices by sharing the vision and experiences, driving policy advocacy and guiding both the students and entrepreneurs.

Along with other industry experts, Mr. Manish Gupta- one of the Co-founders of Unicommerce and his team members from Mumbai branch Mr. Kalaivanan Mariappa, Md. Shafee and Jaspreet Singh Nandre were present at the event that continued to 26th Feb, 2015.

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The post How I Bought My New Mobile Online – PPT appeared first on unicommerce.com.

India is progressing but the Indian buyer’s mentality is essentially still old school. Not much progress there. I too belonged exactly to this frame until some time back.

Earlier whenever I thought that I’d pick something online, I’d visit some forums and then drop the idea altogether. Never thought – I would buy my new phone online

I’d love to walk you through some of my concerns while purchasing online –

What if old items were passed on as new?

This was one of my most grounded fears. Now I must say that this was also the most baseless.

Reputed online stores go length and beyond to give the best of all products to their customers. They offer a guarantee on their products. Also they don’t just mention informally. There are proper disclaimers that clearly state the status of the offered products. And nowadays, online sellers are going far and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. They are enhancing their efficiency with order management software to retain and attract customers.  

Some stores do offer used products too. But you’d find it clearly mentioned in the product page.

Whom will I chase if I need a replacement?

You could need a replacement for several reasons. Either the product may not be good or it may be different from what you expected. With physical stores, you know whom to reach out to if you need a replacement.

However, on ecommerce marketplaces, several retailers offer their products. I was afraid that if I picked a random seller from that platform and they shipped a rather damaged phone to me, how will I ever get a replacement?.

This again is not a problem at all. You can file your complaints through the central platform itself.

Each sale is ultimately the responsibility of the online platform. They validate the entire process.

If you have spent some time in the customer support section of such platforms like Amazon and Ebay, you’ll see that they are available for contacting almost through all means. Be it through the phone, email or live chat, they are there to hear if you have any problems at all.

You’ll be amazed to find them to be even more responsive than your traditional retail outlets.

What if I am credited the bill, but I never receive my purchase?

This again didn’t look like a problem once I started exploring the options in online buying. Cash On Delivery safeguards you against all chances of frauds. Pay once you have your goods delivered to you. You get the COD option for almost all major products. Online tailors are approaching the number of good logistics partners. Moreover, smart sellers use supply chain management software which allows them to track the order status as well as delivery so that the customers can receive their orders at the earliest.

How can I wait for so long?

First, you don’t have to wait forever.

Second, you save days of research by looking up online. All online platforms give you the means of comparing your final shortlisted options. You can compare them side by side and take your decision.

In fact, they suggest phones based on the models that you were initially searching for. In my case, I dropped the model that I intended to buy initially. I picked from one of the suggested models.

Besides, leading online stores are prompt with the delivery and tell you exactly when to expect your parcel. Also, they deliver sooner than they promise.

How could I buy – without physically seeing it?

This is entirely a subject of preference. Some people are indeed very particular about this. I too, was. But then I had repeatedly been hearing my friends yapping about how great their online shopping experiences had been. I didn’t want to feel left out (read: outdated).

There’s no texture really to feel about a phone. The product pages are made pretty explicit to cover even such details. Whether a product has a plastic body or a metallic one, you can find very articulated information over the product page.

All the details that you would need to make your purchase decisions are presented to you in the products specs.

There are several images too along with the dimensions.

The most useful of all are the user reviews, stuck right at the end of each product page. Learning from the existing users is one of the best ways of knowing what to expect from your purchase.

You’ll be amazed to see your buying decisions get influenced by these.

What if the Warranty goes void?

Each brand has its list of official vendors. Official vendors are the retailers or retailers that are authorized by the brand to sell its products.

Companies often offer exactly the same warranty to both its online and offline vendors.

A customer has to be careful to buy a product only from a registered vendor. Sellers often certify when they are officially affiliated with a brand.

I verified this while buying my phone. I strongly suggest that you must also always verify if you are indeed buying from the authorized sellers.

How do I trust if, right products will reach me

 Such concerns are only based upon the inherent hesitation to buy online. Online buyers get complete access to raise their voices in the support forums.

It’s really not possible to sell substandard stuff online. There are extensive review boards. You can check them to see that consumers can report their problems and they can do so at a mega-scale.

Such exposure makes cases of fraud or duping almost impossible.

An Indian purchasing cycle can never really be complete without some bargaining.

But online stores already offer products at highly discounted rates. You don’t have to budge any stubborn seller to get a discount that you are entitled to. 

Imagine shipping in a product for far less than what you would have traditionally spent. That too, without bargaining.

Just in case, this discount is bugging you, understand that online stores can afford such heavy discounts as they do business on a very big scale.

They operate very similar to your traditional wholesale market. You save a great deal on the same product if you buy from a wholesale store. What you must remember is that you get exactly the same quality but for a lesser price. 

Just like the case of an online store, you get exactly the same quality but at a discounted rate.

Guidelines to buy online –

• Look for your product
• See which online stores are selling it
• Scan through the suggested products – there may be some interesting stuff there
• Finalize
• Look for the vendors selling it
• Screen out the official vendors from this list
• Check their reviews
• Compare prices and ORDER

That’s all that has to be done. Watch your product get delivered to your doorstep.

The post How I Bought My New Mobile Online…! appeared first on unicommerce.com.

It always feels great when you are recognized and appreciated by the experts. TechSparks did the same to the tech innovators of Delhi. TechSparks is YourStory’s flagship event and India’s most popular and mainstream tech campaign where the nation’s large entrepreneurial eco-system converges to witness innovation and emerging trends.

Unicommerce eSolutions-the Delhi based Tech Product Company was exhibited in TechSparks held in 13^th September, 2014 in the capital. Unicommerce provides online Multi Channel Order Fulfillment solution which enables E-commerce merchants of all sizes to sell more.

Unlike other typical business events, TechSparks started with a round of networking and lunch before actually heading towards the first talk of the day. The co-founder of Delhivery, Mr. Suraj Saharan gave the first speech where he shared his journey of Delhivery.

Another interesting story came from Mr. Vaibhav Padlikar from Phone Warrior- the mobile app that got over 3 million organic downloads. Phone Warrior is an integrated call and SMS Blocker application for BlackBerry, Android and Nokia Smartphones.

Though the story telling session was quite fascinating, yet there was something more to the event. It was the Tech Bazaar, where some of the exciting startups of Delhi introduced themselves to each other and to the industry experts. Along with Unicommerce, there were TagNPin, WeDoSky, Targeting Mantra, Squadrun, Magictap and Solutions.

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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.

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