IGP Achieved a 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate while Demonstrating a 7X Order Volume Growth
What IGP Gifts Achieved Using Unicommerce?
99.99%+ Order Fulfilment Rate
7X Order Volume Growth in Just 4 Months
11 M+ Live Inventory Count
41K+ Live Catalog Count
70% Increase in Catalog Size
About the Brand
IGP.com (IGP Gifts), which was formerly known as IndianGiftsPortal.com, is India’s leading multi-category gifting company. Headquartered in Mumbai, IGP operates across multiple locations in India and abroad, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, Pune, Singapore, and California.
The company is renowned for its exclusive collection of festival merchandise, gifts, fresh flowers, cakes, plants, gourmet foods, and personalised products for every occasion and festival. With a global presence, IGP caters to customers in over 100 countries and delivers products to more than 300+ cities in India.
However, despite its exponential growth, IGP encountered significant challenges in efficiently handling its custom orders during the picking and packing stages. This prompted their collaboration with Unicommerce, aiming for faster order fulfilment and improved operations.
Challenges Faced by IGP.com
- Reporting Challenges Impeding Effective Decision-Making – One of the challenges faced by IGP was related to reporting. Reporting plays a crucial role in tracking and analysing various aspects of the business, such as sales, inventory, and order status. The company faced difficulties in generating and managing reports effectively. They required customisation in their reports to address their specific needs and gather comprehensive information for analysis. These challenges prompted IGP to seek solutions that could improve its business analysis.
- Costing Challenges in Vendor SKU Variation – IGP faced significant challenges related to cost due to the variation in SKUs across different vendors. Specifically, the cost for a particular SKU can fluctuate when the company receives multiple purchase orders (POs) for the same item from different vendors. This pricing scenario is particularly pertinent for products like flowers, where the cost can vary from vendor to vendor. For instance, a product purchased today may cost 10 rupees, but in the future, the same item could be procured for 15 rupees. The variation in pricing posed a challenge for the brand to accurately determine the cost associated with each item. And also made it difficult to compare prices which further compounded the cost challenges for the brand.
- Need for API Integration to Streamline Website Operations – IGP realised that to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its website operations, it needed to integrate various systems and services using APIs. These systems could include inventory management, order processing, payment gateways, logistics, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, among others. Without API integration, IGP faced limitations in automating processes and ensuring real-time data synchronisation between different systems. This lack of integration resulted in manual workarounds, data inconsistencies, and delays in order processing.
Solutions Offered by Unicommerce
- Enabled Pigeon Hole and Staging for Custom Orders – Unicommerce provided IGP with an advanced solution, namely the Pigeon Hole and Staging Concept, to optimize their order fulfilment process. When a custom order is received, the system identifies items located in different areas of the warehouse. These items are then picked in bulk and placed in a designated staging area. Once all the items are successfully gathered in the staging area, the items are picked again as per the custom order requirement and prepared for packing. This solution ensures efficient order processing by strategically organising items based on their location. This approach minimised unnecessary movement, reduced the time required for order fulfilment, and enhanced overall operational efficiency.
- GRN with Weighted Average Cost – To address the costing challenges arising from vendor SKU variation, Unicommerce introduced the Goods Receipt Note (GRN) pricing, which is based on the weighted average cost. This solution allows IGP to calculate the average cost of an SKU based on the prices from different vendors and the quantities received. With the implementation of this solution, the item master record is automatically updated to reflect the accurate cost of each item, despite the fluctuating prices from different vendors.
- Enhanced Reporting Capabilities – Unicommerce provided customised reporting capabilities, allowing IGP to access real-time and accurate data related to inventory, sales, and order status. Some noteworthy reports included weighted average cost reports and centralised sales order reports. The weighted average cost reports provided IGP with detailed information on the average cost of their inventory, taking into account the GRN pricing. Additionally, the centralised sales order reports offered a consolidated view of the sales orders across all IGP facilities. This comprehensive overview enabled IGP to monitor sales performance and inventory levels across multiple locations, facilitating better decision-making and resource allocation.
- Improved Purchase Order (PO) Process – Unicommerce offered a significant improvement to IGP’s Purchase Order (PO) process. The brand gained enhanced accountability and transparency as the system provided detailed information on who closed each PO, ensuring clear ownership and transparency throughout the process.Earlier, IGP had to create separate POs for each facility. However, with Unicommerce, IGP can now push the same PO from one location to multiple facilities using a single report, streamlining the distribution process.
- Customized APIs Solutions – Unicommerce provided customized APIs tailored to IGP’s specific requirements. These APIs offer seamless integration and automation of various tasks. Key API solutions include:
- Vendor Catalog and Vendor Export Job: IGP can easily subscribe to reports and receive timely updates through these APIs. This allows them to stay informed about important vendor-related information.
- Get GRN: The brand can now obtain crucial information related to GRNs. This includes essential details about received goods, such as quantities, pricing, and other relevant information.
- Create/Update Vendor: Managing a vast list of vendors became effortless with Unicommerce’s Create/Update Vendor API. IGP can efficiently handle its extensive vendor database by creating new vendor profiles or updating existing ones.
- Edit Shipment: This API empowered IGP to make necessary adjustments to shipment details. This includes modifying shipment status and updating package dimensions.
- Started EAN Scanning at Handheld – For IGP Unicommerce enhanced scanning feature at the barcode SKU level, including support for EAN (European Article Number) scanning on handheld devices. This feature enables efficient and accurate identification of products using scannable identifiers. With Unicommerce’s solution, IGP can scan not only SKU codes but also other numeric or alphanumeric codes to retrieve relevant information. This improves the speed and accuracy of product identification and retrieval.
- Enhanced Communication Between IGP.com and Vendors – Unicommerce aimed at enhancing communication between IGP vendors and the brand by notifying vendors via email when the Goods Receipt Note Quality Check (GRN QC) is completed. This means that once the quality check for the received goods is done, the system automatically sends a notification to the vendor, informing them that the GRN process has been completed.This alert served as a way to keep the vendors updated and informed about the status of their goods. It ensures transparency and communication between IGP (the brand) and its vendors.
“We are extremely pleased with the collaboration between IGP and Unicommerce. Unicommerce has provided us with comprehensive solutions to address our specific challenges. Their advanced features, such as Pigeon Hole and Staging, have significantly contributed to our success as India’s leading gifting company. We look forward to a continued journey of success alongside Unicommerce.”
Impact on the Business
The partnership between IGP and Unicommerce has greatly influenced IGP’s journey of business growth:
- Unicommerce’s customizations, such as Pigeon Hole and Staging, streamlined IGP’s order fulfillment process, resulting in a high order fulfillment rate of 99.99%+.
- With improved operational efficiency and automation provided by Unicommerce, IGP experienced a remarkable 7X growth in order volume within a short span of four months.
- Unicommerce’s solutions enabled accurate and real-time inventory management, helping IGP maintain a live inventory count of 11 M+ items.
- IGP’s catalog size grew by 70%, from 21,517 to 36,481, thanks to the scalability provided by Unicommerce.