WareIQ: Building Fulfillment Infrastructure for Modern eCommerce
July 11, 2020
In India, eCommerce consumption is less than one packet per capita. In China it is 70; Europe is in the 20s. As it goes from 1(in India) to 10 or to 20, and it is only a question of time, just imagine what that requires in terms of supply chain infrastructure to meet this scale and customer expectations of getting their deliveries fast and free.
Since Amazon’s India market entry in 2013, online shoppers have got accustomed to nextday/2-day delivery service quality. That means if your online store doesn’t provide this, they shop elsewhere. Further, they require a modern experience of tracking and returns management. Present logistics infrastructure and software tools in India were not built for this speed and sophistication required for modern eCommerce.
Retailers either end up setting up their own fulfillment infrastructure or rely on a network of third parties to provide services. Not having complete control over their supply chain, and huge overheads of fixed investments in infrastructure and tech tools have made Amazon’s faster speeds out of reach for competitors. But getting products to consumers faster will continue to be a trend that the industry will have to address.
Coming to the fore with its on-demand fulfillment platform is a Bangalore based tech native company named WareIQ which offers a full stack fulfillment solution and allows brands to offer Amazon prime like shipping to their customers (same day, next-day, 2-day deliveries). Currently, WareIQ operates out of more than 20 warehouses pan India which are rising every month. Its customers typically store inventory in different locations based on WareIQ’s Fulfillment Decision engine that optimizes shipping timelines and costs. Unlike Amazon, which owns more than 67 fulfillment centers, WareIQ doesn’t own its warehouses. Vaidya describes the company’s strategy as a sort of Uber for fulfillment.
Offering a Full-stack Fulfillment solution to Online Retail Business
WareIQ provides all tools and technology in a central platform which is required for an online retailer to manage their warehouse operations, centralize inventory, track orders, manage customer communications and preempt fraud orders/returns through predictive intelligence.
Customers are looking to get their product quicker, so the distance between consumers and the product needs to continue to shrink
Retailers connect all their eCommerce channels to the WareIQ platform and send them their inventory. WareIQ distributes the inventory across its fulfillment network with an objective to cover 80% of the brand’s demand centers in a 2-day delivery timeline. Whenever an order is placed on any of the channels, WareIQ’s Decision Engine allocates order to the nearest Warehouse holding the inventory, and the right courier partner to pick and deliver to the end customer, while eligible customers witness a “Free NextDay/2-Day Delivery” badge on the product page at the time of purchase.
“Customers are looking to get their product quicker, so the distance between consumers and the product must shrink. While this will be a growing trend, retailers still don’t have full control of their supply chain design restricting them to offer fast and reliable shipping. This is where WareIQ’s Uber-like fulfilment platform comes in and empowers business of all sizes,” concludes Harsh Vaidya, CEO, WareIQ.
https://ecommerce.cioreviewindia.com/vendor/2020/wareiq
