How WareIQ Helped Kama Ayurveda Scale-up its Online Business through Same/Next Day Delivery
About Kama Ayurveda
Founded in 2002, Kama Ayurveda is a luxury personal-care brand of products based on ayurvedic formulations. The brand holds a strong reputation for its usage of pure & high-quality ingredients and the resulting efficacy of its products. The beautiful packaging, avoidance of chemicals such as parabens, artificial fragrances & petrochemicals, and their advocacy against animal testing further contribute towards making the brand’s products an ideal choice for a huge number of people. These products are all EU certified and available worldwide.
Challenges Faced
Though Kama Ayurveda has strong brand recognition and is thereby well-positioned for retail, their eCommerce business was facing a number of challenges. When WareIQ met Kama Ayurveda in July 2020, it was noted that the brand was receiving orders from all across the country. Kama, though very sophisticated in its offline commerce supply chain, couldn’t fulfil those orders effectively.
This meant:
i) Slow shipping timelines for places that were far from the central eCommerce warehouse
ii) Low repeat purchases, order cancellations and a high RTO %
iii) Not being able to go live with COD
Companies such as Amazon which offer 1 & 2-day deliveries to customers have set a benchmark for e-commerce businesses. Moreover, since the pandemic, the volume and frequency of online shopping have shot up considerably, and customers now have higher expectations in terms of shipping timelines. As a consequence, slow shipping timelines lead to a low number of repeat purchases (poor customer retention), cancellations and also a high RTO (Return to Origin) rate.
WareIQ’s Solution
i) To begin with, it identified demand centres across the country and was figuring out a supply chain network solution when it saw that even though Kama Ayurveda had a strong presence in retail owing to the wide brand recognition, these retail stores or locations were not getting utilised to meet local orders
In other words, it was identified that their retail network could be leveraged for local and hyperlocal delivery.
ii) Next, through its platform, WareIQ analysed these demand patterns across different locations in the country and accordingly, inventory was placed in Kama Ayurveda’s retail stores. In this way, the retail stores were an efficient part of the supply chain and the orders located in the respective regions could be fulfilled at quicker shipping timelines
WareIQ’s Fulfilment Platform’s Integration with all of Kama Ayurveda’s Platforms
iii) For zones where there were no retail stores available (supply chain blind spots), WareIQ plugged in four of its own fulfillment centres
iv) Besides setting up a well-functioning supply chain, WareIQ also made a couple of small but significant changes such as incorporating a customised, branded tracking page
(Often, when users want to track their order and use the brand’s website or app to do so, getting automatically directed to the courier company’s website can be a confusing as well as an unpleasant experience for them. The branded tracking page setup by WareIQ provides design consistency. It assures the user that they are on the right page and doesn’t throw them off course, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.)
Impact
In just a few months, the changes implemented by WareIQ started showing a significant & impressive impact on sales volumes and delivery timelines.
i) Orders grew by over 75%
ii) RTO % went down to under 1.5% from double-digits
iii) Close to 90% of orders started getting fulfilled in 2-day delivery timelines, and same-day delivery was possible for orders from metros.
There was not just a decrease in cancellations but customers were even making repeat purchases. Overall costs were reduced, and the brand had more time to focus on scaling up its business
WareIQ also offers a centralised tech platform for your entire eCommerce operations
- ML-based prediction engine for efficient warehouse network design & smart inventory placement
- A centralised platform for core fulfilment & shipping operations
- Integrated Shipping apps to offer transparent ETAs, branded tracking experience, RTO risk insurance, NDR control etc.
Today, over 300 brands like Justherbs, Wingreens, Kama Ayurveda, Flatheads etc. in India have taken charge of their logistics & fulfilment with WareIQ to unlock tremendous value in terms of revenue and customer satisfaction.
