Connect with us

Startup Stories

How Shipyaari Has Given The Roar To Smaller D2C Brands With Its Logistics Tech Stack

Published

on


Launched in 2013, Mumbai-based Shipyaari is a logistics solutions provider, which helps small- and medium-sized brands manage end-to-end logistics

According to Nayan Ratandhayara, cofounder of Shipyaari, even though India, today, cradles more than 50K digital brands, only a handful of these brands have been able to grow at a break-neck speed, leveraging the power of India’s logistics network.

India is said to become the second-largest ecommerce market by 2034, while the warehousing market, one of its important enablers, is set to reach $34.99 Bn by 2027.

Little did the two young aspiring Chartered Accountants (CAs), Nayan Ratandhayara and Vishal Totla, realise back in 2012 that one day they would emerge as dynamic entrepreneurs within the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, dedicated to tackling a myriad of challenges faced by small and medium enterprises.

After becoming professional CAs in 2011, the duo, Ratandhayara and Totla, embarked on their professional journeys in separate companies. However, it didn’t take them long to recognise their potential to bridge the gaps within the Indian logistics industry, due to which smaller and emerging D2C brands remained the minority beneficiaries of the industry offerings.

Understanding the limitations these companies faced in terms of resources and opportunities to tap into the Indian logistics landscape to propel their businesses to new heights, they decided to take up the challenge. Their vision was clear — to serve this underserved segment of businesses, empowering them to thrive.

According to the Ratandhayara, even though India, today, cradles more than 50K digital brands, only a handful of these brands have been able to grow at a break-neck speed, leveraging the power of India’s logistics industry. 

“It is ‘Lions’ versus ‘Cubs’ out there, especially when it comes to the Indian D2C landscape. There are a number of smaller D2C brands (‘cub’ brands as the founders like to call them) that are underserved by the Indian logistics players, and we aim to give these ‘cubs’ the roar to operate on par with the ‘Lions’ or the cash-rich brands,” Ratandhayara said.

Launched in 2013, Mumbai-based Shipyaari is a logistics solutions provider, which helps small and medium-sized businesses manage logistics operations like transportation, inventory management, real-time order tracking, warehousing, fulfilment and last-mile deliveries pan-India and across borders to 190+ countries, along with courier services. 

On the back of this playbook, to service the underserved, Shipyaari has partnered with 25,000 businesses, including BYJU’S, Portronics, GOQii, cult.fit, Dr Vaidyas, Supertails, Ferns N Petals and Bummer, just to count a few. 

Among its 25-plus carrier partners, some prominent names include Blue Dart Express, Delhivery and Ecom Express. Talking about Shipyaari’s reach and impact, Ratandhayara told Inc42 that the startup serves more than 29K pin codes across the country and facilitates an average of 250K monthly shipments. 

According to him, Shipyaari has helped its partner brands witness up to 93% reduction in return to origin (RTO), curbing expenses and improving margins for the merchants.

The startup has two products, Shipyaari Delta and RTO Hubs, which help brands combat RTO challenges across the country. (More on this later).

Shipyaari

 

The Pandemic Push

It was not until the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world that the founders understood the perks of becoming fully digital. 

In Shipyaari’s early days, technology wasn’t their primary focus, revealed Ratandhayara. It mainly emphasised service and operations, using technology as a tool to support its work. At the start, the startup outsourced its tech needs and tailored the systems to serve small and medium-sized businesses.

But then, Covid-19 struck, directly impacting consumer behaviour, amid the rise of the D2C wave. “Customers needed to be served from the confines of their homes due to the Covid-induced lockdowns, and amid this, D2C brands were sitting on bulks of orders that had to be delivered across the nation,” Ratandhayara said. 

This also gave Shipyaari an opportunity to grow and scale by providing tech-driven logistics solutions to D2C brands. 

To stay ahead in the game, the founders began expanding their tech team to stay abreast of the sudden spurt in the Indian D2C industry, with a core focus on providing efficient and quick logistics solutions. 

They hired subject matter experts from domains like product management, IT, sales, marketing and customer support. Within a span of two years, the Shipyaari team grew from 20 members to 100+ employees. The startup, today, has offices across Mumbai, Surat, Gurugram, Aurangabad and Bengaluru.

Between March 2020 and March 2022, Shipyaari helped many D2C brands scale their businesses by partnering with sellers pan-India, delivering across 18,000 pin codes. While speaking about the revenue, Ratandhayara disclosed that the startup’s monthly recurring revenue grew over 3.5X during this period.

While briefly talking about Shipyaari’s revenue model, Ratandhayara said, “Shipyaari’s revenue model focusses on transparency and delivering maximum benefits to its clients.” 

Shipyaari operates on a principal-to-principal basis, which means it works directly with its clients, fostering a relationship of equality and direct interaction. He added, “We do not charge commission fees or take a percentage of our clients’ transactions. Instead, we pass on the significant cost savings we achieve through economies of scale.”

Empowering ‘Cub’ Brands

Ratandhayara believes that one of the key reasons that is limiting the growth of ‘cub’ brands is that third-party logistics prefer to cater to the ‘lion’ brands more than the ‘cub’ brands.

Furthermore, he believes that many of these companies, even those from remote areas, will gain significant market share in the future and Shipyaari aims to help these ‘cub’ brands ‘access their aspirations’. “We have always wanted to create a fair business environment where everyone has an equal chance to succeed,” said Ratandhayara.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Shipyaari launched its plug-and-play logistics solution for smaller brands, simplifying the entire logistics process for them through a single dashboard. 

The startup also assigns relationship managers to assist users in efficiently handling logistics. Shipyaari’s solutions also bring transparency to invoicing, saving time and effort, which otherwise would have been spent managing multiple accounts with different providers.

In addition, the startup’s solutions empower brands to seamlessly integrate their systems with the platform, manage bulk and B2B shipping, access warehousing and fulfilment services, and even facilitate international shipping through one dashboard.

Meanwhile, the startup’s tech stack comprises two solutions among others —  Shipyaari Delta and RTO Hubs (both launched in 2023) — to tackle the RTO woes of D2C brands specifically. 

While Shipyaari Delta is an automated WhatsApp chatbot integrated with the D2C brands’ mobile app and websites to engage with customers, RTO hubs are centres that manage reverse logistics, where returned orders from customers are managed. 

These RTO hubs are located strategically near high demand locations and manage reverse logistics. Additionally, these hubs double as fulfilment centres for future orders, which saves SMEs time and cost.

This speeds up the delivery, as the item is already at a convenient location, further reducing the time and cost of going to distant locations.

Both of these solutions have been launched by the startup keeping the challenges of return to origin in mind, often a costly affair for D2C brands.

Shipyaari Delta offers personalised customer experience by sending them automated messages related to orders, which has helped many brands reduce RTO by up to 40% . 

What’s On The Cards?

As of now, Shipyaari is focussed on advancing its tech, Shipyaari Sprint, for same – or next – day deliveries. For this, it is looking forward to collaborating with local courier partners. 

Further, it will open new offices in cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Ludhiana by next year. It is also looking to double its team size from 100+ to 200 by 2025. Ratandhayara said that the startup is also open to forging strategic alliances with brands that are in sync with its goals and values.

Ratandhayara said jumping on the ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) bandwagon has been a game changer for the startup. “This initiative empowers brands to establish a presence and conduct sales through ONDC, holding the immense potential to democratise India’s digital commerce landscape,” he added.

With government-run initiatives like the ONDC, along with a sustained rise in the D2C wave, India is projected to become the second-largest ecommerce market by 2034 and, one of its enablers, the warehousing market is set to reach $34.99 Bn by 2027.

Amid this, players like Shipyaari are well poised to grow at an unprecedented scale. What will further prove to be the key cog in the growth wheel is their commitment to serve the underserved D2C brands with their tech stack, thereby unclogging logistics bottlenecks for them.





Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Startup Stories

Byju’s partially pays March salaries, pending February payouts.

Published

on

By

Byju’s, a prominent player in the edtech industry, has encountered financial challenges resulting in delayed salary payments for its employees. As of April 20, the company has only disbursed a portion of March salaries, attributing the delay to a severe cash crunch. Despite earlier assurances from the company’s management that salaries for March would be paid by April 18, many mid-senior employees have reported receiving only 50% of their March salaries. Additionally, February salaries remain unpaid for a significant number of employees, further exacerbating the situation.

Founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, has resorted to raising personal debt against his stakes in the company to facilitate salary payments. This underscores the severity of the financial challenges facing Byju’s and highlights the lengths to which Raveendran is willing to go to address the issue.

Employee testimonies reveal the extent of the salary delays, with one employee stating that they received only 50% of their March salary on April 20, with 80% of their February salary still pending. Another concerning aspect is the reported disparity between junior and senior employees, with junior staff receiving full salary payments while top management has gone without salaries for the past two months.

Byju’s has acknowledged the delay in salary payments but has not provided a detailed explanation for the situation. A company spokesperson declined to comment on queries from ET regarding the matter. In an email sent to employees on April 8, the management team expressed regret over the delay and attributed it to the inability to secure approval to access funds from a rights issue. The delay has been further compounded by actions from foreign investors, hindering the company’s access to necessary funds.

This revelation follows a previous report by ET on April 1, which highlighted Byju’s decision to delay salary payments due to constraints imposed by warring investors, limiting the company’s access to funds through a rights issue. The ongoing dispute with investors, including Dutch investor Prosus, has added to Byju’s financial woes and has led to further delays in resolving the issue.

In a separate development, Byju’s India chief executive, Arjun Mohan, announced his departure from the company in mid-April, just six months after assuming the role. This unexpected move prompted founder Byju Raveendran to take on the responsibility of overseeing day-to-day operations of the company’s India business, housed under Think & Learn, marking a significant shift in leadership.

Amidst these challenges, Byju’s is embroiled in a legal battle with a group of investors led by Prosus, who are seeking to block a rights issue and the removal of Byju Raveendran as CEO. The company has also initiated arbitration proceedings to address the dispute and find a resolution.

The rights issue undertaken by Byju’s is significant, as it is being offered at a staggering 99% discount to the company’s peak valuation of $22 billion. This steep discount has implications for investors who choose not to participate in the funding, potentially resulting in a significant dilution of their shareholding post-completion of the rights issue.

The unfolding events at Byju’s underscore the challenges facing the edtech giant as it navigates financial constraints, leadership transitions, and legal disputes. The company’s ability to address these issues effectively will determine its future trajectory and its ability to maintain its position in the competitive edtech landscape.

Continue Reading

Startup Stories

Revolut India receives provisional approval for PPI license from RBI

Published

on

By

Revolut India, a neobank backed by Tiger Global and Softbank, has secured an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for issuing Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI), encompassing prepaid cards and wallets. CEO Paroma Chatterjee shared this development in a LinkedIn post on Friday. This approval complements Revolut India’s existing licenses from the RBI, which allow it to function as a Category-II Authorised Money Exchange Dealer (AD II), enabling the issuance of multi-currency forex cards and cross-border remittance services.

Chatterjee emphasized the significance of this milestone, highlighting the opportunity it presents to provide Indian consumers with both international and domestic payment solutions on a unified platform. Revolut, Europe’s largest neobank, entered the Indian market in 2021 with aspirations to disrupt the domestic payments sector. The RBI’s approval is expected to bolster Revolut’s position as a key player in this domain.

Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) are payment tools that utilize stored monetary value, including digital wallets, smart cards, or vouchers, for transactions. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das proposed on April 5, 2024, to allow PPIs to be linked through third-party UPI applications, enabling PPI holders to conduct UPI payments akin to bank account holders.

Chatterjee underscored Revolut’s commitment to full compliance with regulatory requirements, particularly in India, where the neobank has undertaken significant efforts to localize its global tech-stack to adhere to local regulations.

In an interview with ET BFSI, Chatterjee disclosed Revolut’s plans to introduce a comprehensive suite of digital-first money management services for all Indian customers. These services will enable users to manage their finances, including payments and remittances, both domestically and internationally.

The app, currently in use by employees, will be officially launched once the internal testing phase is completed, according to Chatterjee. She also revealed that there are over 175,000 prospective customers on Revolut India’s waitlist, indicating strong interest in the product.

Continue Reading

Startup Stories

Postman buys Orbit to extend developer community reach.

Published

on

By

Postman, renowned as an API management platform tailored for enterprises, has recently made headlines with its acquisition of Orbit, a pivotal tool in the arsenal of developer companies for nurturing communities across a spectrum of platforms, including Discord, Slack, and GitHub. Although the specifics of the financial transaction remain undisclosed, Postman took to its blog to underline Orbit’s indispensable role in supporting major developer companies in fostering community management and fostering growth over the course of the past four years.

Within the ecosystem of Postman, the integration of Orbit is poised to be transformative, with the Orbit team set to assume a pivotal role in seamlessly embedding community-centric features into the fabric of the Postman Public API Network. This strategic move is aimed at catalyzing dynamic collaboration between content creators and end-users within the network. Postman, boasting a staggering valuation of $5.6 billion, stands as a stalwart in the realm of API collaboration platforms, serving a user base exceeding 30 million developers and 500,000 organizations.

Under the stewardship of Noah Schwartz, a recent addition to the Postman team hailing from Amazon Web Services, the Orbit team is primed to spearhead initiatives aimed at empowering API distributors to broaden the horizons of their communities, optimize API utilization, and solicit direct feedback from users entrenched within the network.

This integration is anticipated to embolden developers to unearth APIs tailored to their unique requirements and foster meaningful engagements with peers to extract maximum value from each API. However, as part of the transitionary phase, Orbit has outlined plans to gradually phase out its existing product and platform over the span of the next 90 days. Commencing July 11, all functionalities will be deactivated, with no provision for the creation of new users or workspaces.

Postman’s strategic maneuver comes on the heels of its triumphant fundraising endeavor in 2021, securing a whopping $225 million in funding. The fundraising round, spearheaded by Insight Partners, witnessed active participation from prominent entities such as Coatue, Bond Capital (helmed by Mary Meeker), and Battery Ventures.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.