Pidilite is a consumer-centric company committed to quality and innovation. Pidilite's brand portfolio includes a complete gamut of consumer and industrial application products. Some top brands in Pidilite's portfolio include Fevicol, Fevistick, M-seal, Dr Fixit, Fevikwik, Fevicryl, and more.

Pidilite sells on popular Indian online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and more. Unlike its retail footprint, Pidilite faced numerous challenges while growing its ecommerce business. Eshopbox came to the rescue with its expertise in the ecommerce domain and proposed the following solutions for every challenge Pidilite was treading on.

Pidilite Challenge #1: How to improve product discoverability and sales performance on top marketplaces?

Leading online marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon have performance-based benefits programs for sellers. As sellers improve their performance on key customer experience metrics, marketplaces unlock benefits on product visibility, faster payments and fee discounts for sellers.

Pidilite was struggling to improve metrics leading to loss of sales due to:

• Ineffective management of ecommerce operations and late dispatch leading to SLA breaches and order cancellations
• Lack of efficient inventory management to maintain sufficient stock at all times leading to high out-of-stock (OOS) rate
• Inability to store and fulfil orders from a fulfilment centre closest to the customer location using local and zonal shipments. This makes it hard to maintain higher regional in-stock % and Regional Utilisation (RU) on Amazon and Flipkart, respectively

Eshopbox Solution: Superior marketplace fulfilment

Eshopbox enabled Pidilite to meet fulfilment benchmarks on marketplaces to help them qualify for becoming a top-tier seller.

• Ultra-fast and accurate order processing: Eshopbox dispatches every order on time without any exception, including holidays, so that Pidilite doesn’t miss out on any SLA for any order.

• Low cancellation rate: Eshopbox’s automated inventory sync in real-time prevents stockouts and overselling. This means if there's a change in shared inventory, Eshopbox relays accurate inventory levels in real-time on every marketplace.

• Increase in Regional utilisation (RU) and regional in-stock %: Eshopbox stores Pidilite’s inventory in a distributed network of fulfilment centres across India so that every order is fulfiled using local or zonal shipping.

The outcome

Pidilite’s improved performance unlocked premium seller benefits that include:

• Achieved 34% regional in-stock %
• Became a Platinum seller on Flipkart
• Improved profit margins with lower shipping fees
• Priority seller support with a dedicated account manager
• Fee waivers (weight handling fees and lightning deal fees) and faster disbursement cycles
• Exclusive promotions on marketplaces to increase product visibility and sales

Pidilite Challenge #2: How to drive more profitability with product kits and bundles?

Pidilite's portfolio consisted of many low-cost products, so they wanted to use product kits and bundles. For that, Pidilite assembles pre-built kits based on the sales forecast and stock them in their warehouses. Unfortunately, this often resulted in the following scenarios:

• Loss of sales as high-selling kits were quickly sold out
• Loss of inventory as low-selling kits were piling up gradually in the fulfilment centre
• Decreased inventory flexibility as the bundled SKUs were not available for individual sale
• Increased costs as pre-built kits meant expenses on assembly and labour

Eshopbox Solution: Virtual kitting

To rise above the problems associated with pre-built kits, Eshopbox proposed an advanced way of kitting to Pidilite—virtual kits. Virtual kits are stored as individual SKUs and bundled together after customers place an order with flexible inventory management and order processing. This enables Pidilite to maximise exposure to a wider variety of products (customers can create a kit with products of their choice) and increase conversions with kitting.

The outcome

• Pidilite experienced 4X increase in sales on top-selling SKUs
• Pidilite bundles on the fly, which gives more inventory flexibility
• Pidilite is able to improve conversion rates with exciting product options and offers
• Pidilite is successful in increasing Average Order Value (AOV), which directly impacts the revenue and profit
• Pidilite keeps costs in check as there’s no additional cost associated with virtual kits
• Pidilite uses product kits and bundles to access optimal marketplace fees

Pidilite Challenge #3: How to reduce shipping costs?

Pidilite was storing its inventory in a few warehouses in India, which means

• Pidilite's coverage in the country was limited to a few regions
• With orders coming in from customers across India, Pidilite was hurting its profitability with national shipping charges for a large volume of orders

Eshopbox Solution: Distributed inventory

Pidilite split its inventory across multiple Eshopbox fulfilment centres spread across India. This enables Pidilite to ship most of its orders using local or zonal shipping—reducing shipping charges.

The outcome

• Pidilite observed 28% reduction in shipping costs due to local and zonal carriers
• Pidilite has increased its fulfilment reach PAN India across 29K+ Pin Codes
• Pidilite’s 100% of listings are marked for express fulfilment
• Pidilite’s shipping costs have dropped drastically as customer orders are fulfiled from the nearest fulfilment centres via local and zonal shipping
• Reduced shipping costs meant Pidilite could increase its profit margins and revenue with cost-efficient shipping