No wonder brands are able to capture only trade data, leaving small retail stories, which are not digital yet, in the lurch. Currently, distribution is broken with brands taking orders on ERP from distributors and don't have any data from small businesses because kiranas do not have technology. Wow’s founders believe that the pandemic should change the way distribution works in India. “We only hope that consumers can carry this behaviour forward,” Manish says. In contrast, it now has 100 percent prepaid orders today.
In the last quarter, COD deliveries made up about 50 percent of the total orders on the company’s platform. One of the ways Wow has changed its processes is accepting only prepaid orders, instead of cash-on-delivery (COD). “It is no longer about revenue – it is about our customers and making sure we deliver our products to them.” Despite their woes, he says the last 20 days “have been incredible” because they have had to rethink their company, and its processes. Wow said it sold a lot of its healthy living products such as the onion and black seed hair oil, apple cider vinegar, and Omega-3 tablets online during the lockdown period.īut logistics continues to remain a problem as is reduced manpower: “We are functioning at less than 20 percent capacity,” says Manish.
#WOW LOOKING FOR HELP FREE#
That, along with people re-evaluating their lifestyle choices with more free time on their hands, bodes well for online sellers, especially ones that promote healthy lifestyles like Wow. The lockdown order effectively forced people to switch to online shopping because of movement restrictions and social-distancing norms, even for bare necessities such as vegetables and groceries. It has been nearly four weeks since the lockdown, and the company is beginning to see a slight pick-up in activity, as well as several beneficial changes in customer behaviours.
The evolution of Zerodha, one of India's largest retail online brokeragesĬhange is coming, but it has to more permanent