While working with an IT consulting company, Rhitiman Majumder (CMO and Co-Founder, Pickrr), Ankit Kaushik (COO and Co-Founder, Pickrr) and Gaurav Mangla, (Co-Founder and CEO, Pickrr) came up with an idea to integrate tech with logistics and launch a tech-stacked platform for E-commerce and D2C brands. This was post-the challenges they saw brands were facing while sending a small volume of shipments. Co-ordinating with multiple courier partners for various locations, tracking each shipment in real-time, etc., was time-consuming. Seeing all these challenges, gaps and requirement of technology in the industry, Pickrr was launched n 2015. Keeping D2C brands and E-commerce at the core of their business, they decided to name the firm Pickrr-- relating to easy picking of the product orders.
Excerpts from an interview with Gaurav Mangla, Co-Founder and CEO, Pickrr
Post-pandemic, how has the logistics space changed? What are the challenges you are facing?
Pickrr has evolved interestingly since 2015. From being an aggregator for all the courier companies, we are now an enabler and growth driver of the D2C ecosystem of the country. The logistics sector has been going through several challenges, and various factors contribute to the same. We are taking several steps to resolve our sellers' challenges.
Considering the impulse buying habit of the end-consumers, online sellers face a lot of hiccups in ensuring last-mile deliveries to difficult-to-reach terrains. This is primarily due to logistics barriers which add to their struggle to expand to these markets as customers prefer their shipments delivered within the same day. Hence, if a brand takes a long time to deliver any shipment, the shopper often changes his mind and refuses to accept the delivery.
To expedite shipments to such parts of the country with a quick turnaround time and reduce the shipping woes for sellers, we have our pan–India network of Fulfillment centers. Since the centers are closer to the customers' locations, our solution makes it easier for brands to set the right expectations for their customers and fulfill quick deliveries with minimum shipping costs.
While plenty of processes brings perfection and accuracy in logistics operations, reverse logistics is closely related to customer satisfaction. To help the brands reduce the percentage of return-to-origin (RTO) orders, our recently introduced solution Pickrr Predict provides predictive customer analysis by considering over 50 parameters against every order and identifying their risk percentage. Based on the same intelligent data analytics, sellers can then take necessary measures to mitigate the significant risk proportion attached to shipment as soon as the order is placed on Pickrr.
What is your present growth rate and revenue?
We have a strong base of over 75K sellers whom we are helping with their end-to-end shipping requirements. Currently, we are making 3 million shipments every month and have a pan-India reach with Pickrr Plus Fulfillment to assure 1-2 day delivery to the end customers. All our initiatives have resulted in the massive growth of the company. Year 2021 has been a fantastic year as we grew by 3X compared to 2020. We are expecting to grow at the same rate this year as well and aiming to close $50 million revenue run rate by end of FY2022.
Are you planning to expand in terms of headcount and cities?
Pickrr is currently headquartered in Gurgaon and has a strong team of over 450 people here. We have operations in 20 cities with fulfillment centers spread across the country, which our extended team handles, and we will keep expanding as per the business requirements.
Since we are progressing towards the next phase of growth and expansion, we are hiring more people to strengthen our leadership team. Earlier this year, we onboarded Sandeep Dinodiya as the company’s Senior Vice President & Head of Engineering and Vineet Budhiraja as Senior Vice President, Operation.
What are your plans going forward?
Working towards customer satisfaction remains our priority this year as well as post-purchase experience drives retention. To provide more convenience and increase the efficiency of our sellers, we are planning expansions across the country by creating intelligent Fulfillment Centers. All the facilities will offer tailor-made solutions, including using a WMS with smart technology, a smooth palletized outflow of bulk orders, customized packaging, refrigeration capability, etc.
With the Pickrr Plus Fulfillment model, sellers can automate their orders, reduce inventory worries and deliver shipments to their customers within 24-48 hours. We have recently launched our revolutionary easy checkout solution for the brands.
We intend Pickrr to be the biggest Saas-based logistic company that enables even the smallest D2C players from any part of the country, with the best end-to-end solutions, to do business online seamlessly and emerge as Atmanirbhar.
You launched Pickrr Predict recently. How much has it been able to make a difference to deliveries. How much does failed COD impact business?
Recently, failed cash-on-delivery has become a significant challenge for businesses, and there can be multiple factors behind COD orders not getting received, resulting in considerable monetary loss to the brands. Such as fraudulent orders, incorrect addresses, unavailability of cash, late deliveries, restricted zones, etc. To assist our sellers in making a well-informed decision regarding their shipments, we have introduced Pickrr Predict, which helps calculate order risk percentage for digital-first sellers.
The flagship product "Pickrr Predict" provides predictive analysis to the sellers based on over 50 parameters, including past online transactions of the customer, return history, high-stress delivery zones, etc., as soon as an order is placed on the Pickrr dashboard. This insight helps the sellers mitigate the significant risk proportion attached to Cash-on-delivery orders.
Pickrr Predict is already resolving the shipping woes for over 5,000 sellers currently using this disruptive service.
Recently, Pickrr launched Fastrr. How will it help brands?
Pickrr’s Fastrr Checkout is the next-generation checkout, serving the new-age needs of the modern shopper of today. It is a simple, fast, and secure checkout that reduces the hassle of creating accounts and filling out long forms for a shopper. Fastrr gives additional features like address intelligence, delivery date promise, and multiple secure payments enhancing a shopper’s experience at that D2C website.
It is the most advanced, fastest one-click checkout service, which boosts the entire checkout journey of a shopper and reduces RTO (return to origin), improves customer conversion, and improves the prepaid to COD mix for a business.
Have you been able to fulfil the premise you had in mind when you launched Pickrr?
Definitely! We have done that, and we will continue to do the same. From starting as an aggregator of all courier companies, we are now an enabler of the D2C ecosystem. With over 75,000 sellers, we make 3 million shipments every month and assure 1-2 days’ delivery to the end consumers. Providing the best customer experience has been our priority since the very beginning.
