WareIQ D2C Scale up Series | Learnings with Mayank Gupta

A Comprehensive SEO Checklist for Direct to Consumer brands

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How can your Brand stand out with effective yet cool packaging!

Customer Delight”. The buzzword that is crucial during your customer’s unboxing experience! Designing this aspect of customer experience is an integral part of establishing an impressive brand. While shipping materials could often be an afterthought for most brands, an emphasis on branded shipping cartons can help your brand capitalize on retaining current customers. How? Let us show you    Staying On-Brand A branded experience shouldn’t end when you receive an order. Ensuring your shipping materials and packing process are on-brand will help your company deliver an experience most customers will remember. When your customer receives a shipped package from your brand, their very first impression of your product is going to be the carton. From there, what is the first thing they see upon opening it? And the next? From start to finish, there are many opportunities for your company to deliver a memorable experience that solidifies your brand identity.   Components of a Branded Shipping Experience Shipped products should be packaged in a way that enhances the customer’s experience of your brand. The order in which items are presented can add massive value and streamline a customer’s shopping experience.    Outer Packaging of a Fulfillment Container The first thing your customer sees upon delivery is the outer packaging of your fulfillment container. An important question to ask when choosing outer packaging is this: Should my company’s shipping packaging be branded or not? For companies shipping products that require discretion – such as adult products or high-end products – a plain and unbranded outer package is likely preferred, in order to prevent theft in transit or prying eyes from neighbours. For other products – especially perishable food items – it can be important to mark or brand the outside of the box to alert recipients of the package contents immediately upon receiving delivery. If your product doesn’t fit into either of those categories, consider what is best for your customer and your company. Will custom printed boxes and packaging material enhance your customer’s experience? If so, that can result in an increase in your company’s bottom line.  If custom printed boxes aren’t right for your brand (or if it’s currently outside of your company’s bootstrapped budget), another option to consider is pre-designed non-branded coloured boxes. These can be enhanced with a simple creative solution such as using a stamp to add branding or a sticker used as a seal on the outside of the parcel. Custom-printed packing tape is another great way to add branding elements to your shipping process. An additional perk of custom packing tape is that it serves to dissuade tampering during transit of a product.   Inner Packaging of a Fulfillment Container Choosing the inner packaging of your fulfillment container is another superb opportunity to highlight your branding. While many items are shipped with packing nuts, paper, foam, bubble wrap, etc you may differentiate your shipping experience by using materials that are more aligned with the ethos of your brand. For companies looking to promote their eco-friendly ethics, opting for biodegradable packaging or recycled materials shows your customers that you care about minimizing environmental waste. This gives customers the satisfaction of investing in a brand that promotes ethical, sustainable practices, which makes them feel even better about purchasing  Do you have a particular thematic colour scheme associated with your brand? Crinkle paper comes in most colours. Tissue, perhaps a more elegant option, can be printed with your company’s watermark!   Box Inserts Once the box is opened, will you take this moment to present your customer with something in addition to what was ordered? This stage in the fulfillment process is often overlooked, but it can greatly enhance the customer’s experience of unboxing their order. Here are some different options and ideas for box inserts:   Customization Opportunities   Personal touches At volume - handwritten notes aren’t feasible, a printed note card is more than adequate to evoke a similar welcoming feeling. Consider taking this opportunity to thank your customer or formally welcome them to your brand. Even packing slips can be personalized with a signature or stamp that says, “Packed for you by ____.” This reminds customers that your business is run by real humans who care about the customer experience. In an increasingly automated world, these simple human touches can make your brand stand out. Postcard inserts Feature a call to action, such as an invitation to join a social media contest. Ask customers to document their experience with a photo of their new products. Share your company’s origin story or brand values. Include an on-brand quote or introduction. Companies that offer high-touch support can invite customers to contact customer service with questions or feedback. Promotional material such as a discount code for future orders will encourage repeat sales and maximize a customer’s lifetime value. Gifts Delight your customers with an unexpected free item such as stickers, freebies, or other bonuses.  If your products can be distributed in sample sizes, this is a great cross-sell technique to introduce your customer to a new or complementary product. For the proper effect, the product sample must be of interest to the specific customer segment, based on the product ordered. Random or non-complementary gifts can have an adverse effect and may appear to be a tool for liquidating stale inventory.

March 18, 2021

When Should I Use a Fulfillment Center for FBA Prep Services?

Fonts must be clear.  Labels must not be faded. A direct thermal or laser printer must be used. Only certain types of packaging material allowed …. And the checklist on how to prepare inventory for FBA or Fulfillment By Amazon goes on… and on… and on. Amazon ships 35 items a second and that’s because FBA runs like a well-oiled machine. But it can be a mind-boggling overload of instructions and information for vendors. Failing to comply with FBA preparation requirements may result in being charged for non-compliance, and products being returned, disposed of, or blocked from future shipments. And that’s not a situation any vendor wants to be in.   A fulfillment centre for FBA prep services can lift the weight off your shoulders Using the right service, like the one offered by WareIQ for instance, will ensure your inventory is prepared according to Amazon’s regulations and standards and delivered to Amazon. WareIQ is a software-only platform that connects and centralizes a nationwide network of fulfillment centers and last-mile couriers. Once products are sent into a prep service, you can focus on other aspects of your business, like sales, marketing and scaling up for instance!   So, when do you use an FBA prep service?   ~ If you are looking to comply with Amazon’s scheduled delivery Prep services ensure proper packaging and preparation which helps to reduce delays in receive time. Taking scheduled appointments in the Amazon Fulfillment Center is a hassle because of the complex checklist of items to be executed. There are chances of missing the time slot leading to stock rejection. Stock preparation needs to follow Amazon guidelines which is a thorough process that WareIQ staff is trained in. WareIQ offers FBA prep services that ensure quality control, streamlining and adherence to Amazon standards whether it comes to fragile item preparation, repackaging thousands of SKUs to simply labelling products correctly with barcodes. WareIQ’s automated order fulfillment system ensures efficient and accurate picking and packing.   ~ If you are looking to save money Keeping track of a lot of different stock keeping units or SKUs that require different prep services can be tricky. You have to ask yourself if your business can afford to have its products returned or be billed a non-compliance fee for failure to meet FBA standards. Outsourcing FBA prep is a cost-effective way to move inventory. With WareIQ's smart technology, SKUs are mapped across sales channels for efficient fulfillment. Also, with WareIQ you’ll only pay for what you use, which means if you ship only one product in a month, you’ll only pay a pick and pack fee for that one. WareIQ books slot for clients on their behalf and offer bulk shipping with multiple sellers thereby ensuring cost efficiencies.   ~ If you are looking to save space FBA doesn’t just take up mind space, it takes up a whole lot of physical space as well. De-palletizing and repackaging, and storing packing materials such as poly mailers, fragile item wrapping, or labels can take up a lot of space, which most vendors do not have. In this case, a fulfillment center may be a great option. WareIQ has the bandwidth to fulfill 1 to 10,000+ orders each day.   And finally, if you are looking to save on resources Think about what you could be doing with the resources it takes to manage FBA prep. Outsourcing to a fulfillment centre can help you focus on growing your core business.

March 11, 2021

3 things to know about WareIQ’s Next-Day Delivery

The ubiquity of internet access has levelled the retail playing field, making it easy for individuals and businesses to sell products without geographic limitation. eCommerce shopping is growing rapidly in India. The backbone of any successful eCommerce retailer is its logistics strategy and how quickly and efficiently it can fulfill orders to customers.   Why is logistics so crucial?  As more transactions move towards online, customers want what they order almost as instantly as they would get it if they were in a physical store. This expectation is largely attributable to one company: Amazon. It was only a few years ago that acceptable delivery timeframes were 5-7 business days. But definitely no today! Amazon has transformed the market in such a way that free, two-day shipping is now the accepted norm and that’s quickly evolving into a one-day expectation. One of the biggest challenges for eCommerce retailers is shopping cart abandonment. Sixty-nine per cent of all online shopping carts are abandoned. Multiple sources of industry research confirm that the number one reason is due to high shipping costs. So, one antidote to shopping cart abandonment is faster, more affordable shipping. And one antidote to Amazon is being able to deliver at a comparable cost and speed.   The answer? Next-day delivery. Reaching your end-user within a next-day delivery is made possible with a larger, dynamic fulfillment network. But it doesn’t come without its challenges. As more and more retailers seek to compete with Amazon and offer fast, low-cost delivery to customers, here are the top 3 things to know about a next-day delivery fulfillment network like WareIQ: Identifying the Right Fulfillment Locations Allocating and Managing Inventory Evolving Customer Delivery Promises 1. Identifying the right fulfillment locations The crux of offering next-day delivery to your customers is adding more fulfillment centers to your distribution network. Traditional means of doing that have either meant you buy and operate your own facilities and resources, you outsource to a 3PL, or you go through Amazon’s fulfillment services. Next-day delivery from WareIQ is different. Instead of investing in fixed assets, long-term lease commitments, or Amazon’s services, you can leverage our marketplace of already-operating facilities that have excess space and resources for warehousing and fulfillment services. But, if you want to reach 95% of your customers with next-day delivery, how do you know how many fulfillment centers to add and where to add them? At WareIQ, we’ll start by running a full network analysis that models various fulfillment scenarios using your actual backend data. Based on your fulfillment goals for time and cost, we’ll work with you to find the most cost-effective network scenario to achieve these goals. 2. Allocating and managing inventory Having more locations in your network does complicate how you manage and allocate your inventory. However, there are several ways to work through this along with WareIQ. As you move into more WareIQ locations, what should you consider when planning for inventory? Decentralized demand increases uncertainty and variability and makes forecasts harder to pin down. Regional and local preferences may create a different mix of inventory at each location Rebalancing inventory between locations may be required Here are three ways to keep your inventory in check as you grow your network: Understand the needs of your customers: We can help you move to next-day fulfillment to all of your customers, but is next-day shipping their expectation for all of your products? Analyzing historic inventory backorders can provide a rough understanding of what you’ll need at each location, and performing A/B testing can help quantify the improvements to conversion that’s associated with shorter ship times. Start with your top-performing SKUs: Inventory allocation becomes exponentially more complicated when you combine your high- and low-performing SKUs at the regional and local level. As you begin to offer faster ship times, start with your top performers and allocate those by region. Keep it simple. Proactively manage your projects and relative inventory: In the early stages, you may need to spend more time managing inventory. Take it slowly and measure every move until you can better predict and proactively manage inventory and its allocation. We’re also here to help you make the most of your network. We can partner with you to help you analyze and forecast demand, establish the right mix of A, B, and C SKUs. 3. Evolving customer delivery promises WareIQ’s Next-Day Delivery is designed to help you improve your fulfillment strategy with a solution that makes sense for your business. This can be done in three ways: Drive growth: You can reach more of your customers faster through a network that offers the flexibility and scalability traditional 3PLs and warehousing solutions can’t Cut costs: Eliminate traditional warehousing expenses and get the right inventory to the right location at the right time for the right cost Reduce risk: Control your own brand experience by delivering to your customers in your own brand collaterals and packaging As you refine your fulfillment strategy, you can begin to evolve your customer delivery promise and differentiate yourself from your competitors. For high-growth eCommerce retailers, your logistics strategy is the backbone of your business. To Know about WareIQ Next-Day Delivery - www.wareIQ.com

March 04, 2021

The benefits of selling D2C

Obviously cutting the middleman out of the equation provides the potential for brands to earn a higher margin and have direct access to their consumers and their data. But there are other notable benefits of selling D2C, which we explain below:   Benefit #1 To gain a better understanding of the customer Before the intervention of D2C, manufacturers rarely interacted with the people who purchased their product. Sure, brands may try to get a good understanding of their target market by doing research and conducting surveys. But trying to understand your customers through these methods isn’t necessarily the best way to get to know them. Ideally, you need to have direct contact with your customer through every stage of the sale process, this also includes the communication that you have with the customer after you sold the product. These types of interactions are very hard to replicate in a focus group. To give you an example, it is widely known that consumers in the US want to eat healthily. GlobalData reports that 87 per cent of consumers in the US check the ingredients before they purchase a food product, and 75 per cent are concerned about consuming too much processed and unhealthy foods. But on the contrary, those same customers, who have said they want to eat healthily, also want to indulge in a gourmet burger served with fries. D2C enables brands to gain direct insights into their consumers and gather data that accurately reflect their behaviour.   Benefit #2 Faster GTM (go to market) Besides being stuck in their ways, another reason why most legacy brands tend to shy away from innovation is that of the extreme risks involved. On average, a new product launch takes between 18 to 36 months - too slow, right? That’s exactly what customers feel. In D2C, manufacturers can take quick decisions allowing them to launch a new innovative product on a smaller scale but faster. Manufacturers can develop a specific product, test it within a very tight demographic, and then get their feedback. This enables large manufacturing firms to understand what their customers love and hate about the product so they can make the required adjustments where appropriate.   Benefit #3 Increased control over brand, product, and reputation In a traditional manufacturing-retailer relationship, manufacturers could only have full control over their packaging and their outbound marketing activities like TV commercials and billboards. Once the product hits the shelves, larger brands no longer have control in trying to influence the sale. Even though these large brands try to influence as much as they can through commercial advertisements, if retailers struggle to sell their product, then they’re at risk of incurring a loss. With D2C, firms maintain complete control over their brand from the moment a customer makes their initial engagement right up until the product has been purchased.

February 24, 2021

Strategies to decrease your RTOs with WAREIQ

According to a recent study by KPMG, return shipments can make up to 20% of total shipments in e-commerce. This rate climbs to 40% in case of Cash on delivery (COD) orders. Return to Origin (RTO) is a nightmare for sellers as it significantly increases the logistic costs. RTOs rates are expected to increase even further in India with demand surges in tier 2 and 3 cities. Given the situation, reverse logistics has become an integral part of a business plan. Given the convenience of online shopping and the lack of risk, buyers can frequently return items without second thoughts. RTO logistics become extremely important to decrease this trend as well as the costs involved.   How vastly does RTO affect your business? The sheer amount of revenue lost by companies through return items is about 20% of the sale, and that’s exactly where WareIQ pitches in to help you save the costs. We optimize your return order logistics and improve overall efficiency with the help of insights derived from customer data, customer retention metrics and return policies.   What sets WareIQ apart? Quick TAT (Turn around time): Logistic partners provide an estimated delivery timeline based on which the customers anticipate the delivery. If it fails to reach them as per this expectation, there is a risk of an RTO and the customer opting to order from a competitor. This also affects customer retention rate. With WareIQ’s Amazon-like shipping, data-driven insights, PAN-India network of warehouses and excellent supply chain management system, orders reach the customers on time as promised. This ensures a higher rate of First attempt delivery, thus reducing the breach of TAT. Higher and Efficient First Attempt Strike Rate (FASR): Delivery success in the first attempt ensures happy customers and helps in their retention. This is an important metric since lower returns imply lower logistics costs on RTO. With WareIQ’s structured incentive plans, delivery partners are encouraged to deliver maximum shipments in the first attempt thereby increasing the FASR. Improved Non-delivery Report (NDR) conversion: Knowing the customer’s intent before performing the last mile delivery can save a lot of time costs related to RTOs. This can be achieved by validating the attempted shipments by directly communicating with customers via phone calls, SMS, e-mail, WhatsApp, etc. Any change of preference or cancellation or order can be recorded and shared to the shipping partner in real-time to decide whether to “Reattempt the delivery” or “Make RTO”. Performing this manually at scale is almost impossible. With WareIQ’s innovative solutions, most of it can be automated via IVR (Interactive voice response) calling, auto-SMS, auto-mailer, Whatsapp alerts, etc. This also keeps the customer well informed and creates an impact on improving the delivery conversion percentage. In the auto NDR process, the customer will get an IVR call immediately after a failed delivery or when the NDR remark is updated by the delivery personnel. Automation makes the entire process quick and efficient. Wrong or incomplete address: Amidst the huge traffic across the supply chain and sometimes because of consumer’s ignorance, deliveries often end up attached with wrong or incomplete addresses. This is also one of the major reasons for RTO. Address validation becomes important in this context. WareIQ ensures this authenticity with various checks on the same. This increases the chances of successful delivery. In case of an incorrect address, shipping is cancelled prior to dispatch. It allows not only for lower RTO but also avoids wasteful shipping costs. Automated partner pin code allocations: With WareIQ’s cutting edge technology, pin code allocation is automated. This altogether eliminates the hassles of manual allocations thus lowering the cost of shipping & RTO as well as increasing serviceability and speed of delivery. Making changes in allocations is complex and takes a good amount of time. The system analyzes historic RTO percentages and cost per shipment (forward + RTO) to optimize the allocation and ensure that the courier with the lowest possible cost is chosen for the given pin codes. Such efficiency and cost reductions are not possible with manual processes. This also saves a lot of time in processing and shipping the orders.   Beyond the Amazon-like next-day deliveries, WareIQ also solves several pressing problems that sellers face and RTO is one of them, as we have seen.   Ready to supercharge your deliveries? Get in touch with us now!

January 24, 2021