This is 3rd article in the series based on interviews with 4 founders of online retail stores: Gokulraj of Zapstore.com, Abhishek Shah of Fetise.com, Nimish Adaniof Engrave, and Vijay Singh of Aaramshop. The introductory post for the series can be found here.
How do you ship your products?
Gokulraj: We ship via regular service using GATI, Bluedart, Aramex etc. We deliver the product to major cities within two days. In Chennai, we have our own delivery team.
Abhishek: Every shipping vendor has own strengths and one has to use multiple partners to achieve maximum depth of coverage. We also use Indian postal services wherever required!
Nimish: We currently have shipping partnerships with Fedex, DTDC and Aramex. DTDC seems to have the best reach though there are cases where we had to use other services for specific regions like Professional Courier in Kerala, Palande Couriers for Panvel, etc.
Vijay: Retailers can home deliver within their catchment area in a matter of hours. We will introduce the “order online / pick up at store” option in the near future
How is Cash on Delivery (COD) useful to the business?
Gokulraj: COD gives the customers an additional payment option to pay. It is mostly used by first timers.
Abhishek: COD helps in building trust with early adopters of our brand who are making first few transactions with us – and also those who really lack a credit card or net banking facility
Nimish: COD shipments are sent via Aramex and we also do some of the COD deliveries ourselves in case of Mumbai. I think COD is a definite plus for customers – given that the payment gateway experience is not always as fast.
Vijay: We do not use any payment gateways at the moment due to the high percentage of fee per transaction (grocery is a low margin business). The retailers home deliver the purchase and collect cash on delivery.
Next article will discuss internet marketing strategies and need for mobility. Stay tuned!
