Ahmedabad-based SaaS startup tells online sellers, Don't Scratch Your Head
Ask any online merchant what their biggest headache is, and the response would be “logistics reconciliation”. E-commerce marketplaces collect money from the customers, but deliver it to the sellers only after deducting their commission, logistics and payment charges. With most e-sellers registering with multiple marketplaces, keeping track of orders and payments from each of them is, expectedly, a major hurdle.
But new-generation entrepreneurs are not just money-makers; they solve problems plaguing their industry too. With six years of experience as an online seller, Ahmedabad-based Suraj Vazirani wanted to solve this issue for other online sellers.
Having founded online marketplace maniacstore.com in 2011, and selling on all major e-commerce platforms, Suraj had known the pains at each level in the ecosystem. “When our sellers came on board, we felt the need for a pillar that solves all the woes of reconciliation, from a single window, which can also encompass various entities of e-commerce,” he explains.
A SAAS-based platform for e-commerce channels with key focus on reconciliation, DSYH was born in November 2015 with about Rs 50-lakh initial investment. Why the funny name? “Sellers start scratching their head when they find severe mismatch while reconciling two records - their own and the marketplaces’. We solve that, and hence ‘Don’t Scratch Your Head’,” says Suraj.
Edge over competitors
Snapdeal-owned e-commerce management software and fulfilment solution provider Unicommerce and Bengaluru-based Primaseller are the other major players in the sector. The latter is a cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) system for vendors to list their products and download orders from eBay and Amazon. Goa-based Browntape also appoints an expert who acts as a partner for the retailer and helps them grow their sales from the online channels.
DSYH is a full-stack ERP (enterprise resource planning), focussing on reconciliation for e-commerce entities - seller, marketplace or enterprises. “We have built re-pricing push feature with real-time promotions calculation logic, key reconciliations of unsellable returns reimbursement, marketplace promotions, payments and orders. DSYH shows the exact pre-shipping profitability for a seller based on our complex proprietary algorithms,” says Suraj.
According to Suraj, e-commerce sellers only have assumptions about collectibles as per the policies of each marketplace, which have different and complex methods of deducting payments. For someone selling on multiple channels, it is imperative to know gross profitability, as this helps a seller to claim reimbursement if wrong charges are cut before shipping the orders and after receiving payments. Suraj claims that this is a first-of-a-kind technology in India, built on Core PHP with excellent turnaround time – a feat that is nearly impossible even with validated players currently using PolyGlot systems, MVC platforms and big data solutions.
Building from the scratch
DSYH is built out of 60,000+ hours of learning. It currently has 51 clients (on trial) and a waiting list of 200+ sellers. It supports marketplaces such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, and Paytm, as well as logistics for Aramex, FedEx, BlueDart and Delhivery.
DSYH targets revenue of around $25 million in the next three years. It is partnering with marketplaces that are keen on improving their seller ecosystem experience. “Currently, many aggregator-based service partners are in talks with us. Partnering with them will benefit us, as they have hundreds of sellers,” says Suraj.
Although initial publicity came by word of mouth, DSYH is also marketing via SMS, email, social media, as well as content marketing. It is also organising workshops for online sellers to educate them on how to grow their business. DSYH has integrated PoS for offline and online sellers, which it hopes will bring offline sellers to online platforms for a minimum charge.
However, Suraj recommends better engagement systems for the entire seller ecosystem. “Industry will touch $100 billion by 2020 and this would require thousands of more sellers to join e-commerce. We hope that government would invite public-private partnership with help of technology like ours to smoothen transactional headaches like entry taxes, service taxes, VAT etc., in e-commerce,” he says.
The team has six members, including the founders. Suraj, the CEO, is a commerce graduate and one of the earliest e-sellers in India in the days of eBay, when Snapdeal was still a deals-based website. He is now convener at All Indian Online Vendors Association. Hari Vaag, Co-Founder & CTO, was a core team member at Travelguru.com for three years, and CTO with Maniacstore since 2012. Sumit Karanji, Co-Founder & COO, is a business management professional who has founded two startups in automotive & healthcare as well.
Sumit says that there are no similar platforms [for reconciliation] in emerging markets, and they have been getting requests from Pakistan, Nepal and Burma. "Being a unique player has given us a significant advantage, so we are planning to expand to quite a few Asian countries soon," he adds.
Loginext Solutions Co-founder Dhruvil Sanghvi is their mentor. Dhruvil told YourStory: "As ecommerce has matured in India, all the companies are focusing on building seller and buyer loyalty and ease of trade without spending a lot of money. IT leads to a strong need of advanced platforms for sellers to manage their receivables, products, logistics services, and other key areas." He believes that now is the time for products like DSYH to take Indian ecommerce to an advanced level where every single Indian would want to sell and buy on marketplaces without attractions of discounts and unreasonable benefits.