In recent time, India has become the hotspot for all types of ecommerce players across the globe. Seeing the potentiality of a larger market, even the Amazon.com- World’s No.1 Online Retailer couldn’t stop themselves to enter into Indian Ecommerce.
Recently, in an interview with a popular Business Magazine “Retailer”; Ankit Pruthi- the Cofounder and CEO of Unicommerce has revealed the Seller Side of the Indian E-commerce.
Unicommerce is a Tech Product Company, processing more than a million orders every month. The biggies of Indian e-commerce industry like Jabong, Snapdeal, Myntra, Lenskart, Urban Ladder, and Caratlane are some of its clients.
While revealing the seller side of the story, in his conversation with Retailer, Mr. Pruthi has also talked about some other essential aspects of ecommerce business like order fulfillment process, the role of ecommerce platforms and the future of online businesses in India.
In a particular mention to the Future of Indian Ecommerce Industry, he further added, “We currently have around 30,000 odd online sellers. That’s a tiny fraction of India’s real potential. The potential will be unlocked in coming years, and this number will easily grow seven to eight times in next five years. Complexity, competition and scale are going to get bigger and bigger. So any online seller, who is serious about his e-commerce business, must automate as much as possible.”
According to him, “Running multiple physical stores is too easy as compared to selling at multiple places online.”
To get the complete story, keep reading…
Why online sellers should not focus on fulfillment?
Unlike physical retail chains, selling online works on scale. In fact, Indian e-tailers have already accepted the fact that it is better to outsource the job of promotion/marketing to big players. That’s why they enlist themselves as sellers on marketplaces like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon, etc. They have also outsourced the delivery of goods to end courier companies. But when it comes to order fulfilment, they underestimate its complexity and try to do it themselves. Soon, they get so overwhelmed by it that they are not able to focus on their core activity – which is focusing on growing their business. Hence, they should not focus on fulfilment.
Tell us a bit about the ‘seller side’ of Indian e-commerce story?
There has been a lot of research on the pain points, demographics, demands, and such other aspects of online buyers in Indian e-commerce. But the seller side has been a bit neglected. In fact, the current situation of e-commerce is overwhelmingly in favour of end customer. In such a situation, online sellers need all the more support to survive and succeed.
Delivery time is the only pain area people think online sellers might be having. That’s not true. There is much more to order fulfilment than just delivery. Delivery is the most visible portion of it. A lot happens at the backend like managing activities such as procurement and inventory and looking after vendor base and warehouses,and of course, the syncing of orders and inventories from many places you are selling at. From day one,Unicommerce has focused on the seller side of Indian e-commerce. Our best team solves their problems leveraging the power of technology. And, it has paid us rich dividends.
What is the role of an e-commerce platform?
There are too many players, people, entities and processes involved in the entire chain of order fulfilment. It is very easy to lose focus and side track your priorities when there are so many variables to take care for every single order. Unless and until you can manage all of them from a single platform, you won’t be able to control the entire customer experience. E-commerce platform connects all the dots and keeps you in sync with the big picture, and lets you focus on things that matter. Time (to deliver), price (offered to end customer), variety (catalogue size) and cost (of fulfilling orders) — these four things decide the growth and profitability of the online business. And a right e-commerce order fulfilment platform makes a definite, clearly measurable impact on all four of those things.
How do you see the Indian e-commerce shaping up?
We currently have around 30,000 odd online sellers. That’s a tiny fraction of India’s real potential. The potential will be unlocked in coming years, and this number will easily grow seven to eight times in next five years. Complexity, competition and scale are going to get bigger and bigger. So any online seller who is serious about his e-commerce business, must automate as much as possible.