Farmley is a growing Food and Beverage (F&B) brand, selling a wide range of non-perishable, product portfolios such as almonds, cashew nuts, fox nuts, walnuts, and dried fruits to name a few. Farmley sells its products via brand websites and popular marketplaces like Amazon, CRED, Flipkart, JioMart, Meesho, and Snapdeal.

With an extensive product range across sales channels, the number of orders received by Farmley was increasing consistently. Naturally, with this influx of orders, keeping ecommerce operations smooth while excelling in customer experience was difficult. Taking the initiative to bring professionals and simplify operations, Farmley leaned into Eshopbox's expertise & showed enthusiasm in experimenting with our proposed solution, specific to every challenge.

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Challenge #1: Improving Inventory Utilization without committing inventory to specific sales channels

Farmley had created separate inventory pools to fulfill orders from different sales channels—Flipkart, Amazon, JioMart, and website orders. The main reason is that major marketplaces need inventory commitment from ecommerce brands. For instance, Farmley could not sell the inventory allocated for Flipkart on any other channel.

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This meant inventory was blocked for specific sales channels, and as a result:

• Inventory exposure decreased for other channels and often led to a loss of sales
• Overstocking and understocking became a constant problem as inventory was blocked for some SKUs. Simultaneously, the inventory became out-of-stock (OOS) for some SKUs
• Farmley was struggling to track its inventory and lost visibility over its stock levels across sales channels

Solution: Centralized inventory

Eshopbox's integration with 29+ sales channels enabled Farmley to connect with the desired platform and, simultaneously share inventory. It enabled the brand to distribute the same inventory across all channels to maximize exposure and increase conversion rates.

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Outcome

• Farmley increased its inventory exposure & sales across all channels
• Premium listing on marketplaces along with an FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) Badge
• Eliminated overstocking and understocking issues by optimal inventory utilization
• Complete visibility & control over its inventory by tracking stock levels across sales channels in real time

Challenge #2: Improving NPS with a great delivery experience?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a valuable metric that measures customer satisfaction and loyalty. For Farmley, it was a priority. That’s why providing an exceptional delivery experience was key to their sales. However, Farmley struggled with its post-purchase experience.

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• From custom packaging for a pleasant unboxing experience to tracking expiry dates so it doesn’t reach the customers, Farmley found it hard to provide a great delivery experience consistently
• The absence of an order tracking facility didn’t let the customer know their order status. Hence, the customer support team witnessed hundreds of WISMO (where is my order) calls.
• A not-so-good manual returns process made the whole experience slow and inconvenient for customers.

Solution: Extraordinary customer experience

• ‍Exceptional unboxing experience: Eshopbox made custom packaging a possibility to create an unforgettable unboxing experience with flexible packaging rules.‍
• Fulfilment at the batch level: Eshopbox utilized the FEFO (First Expired First Out) approach in order fulfilment enabling Farmley to ship out the product with the closest expiry date, preventing inventory from becoming obsolete in the fulfilment centre, while ensuring the delivery of quality products to customers.‍
• Superior order tracking: We created a self-service customer portal, offering an Amazon-like experience for Farmley’s customers. Now customers can track and see exactly where their orders are in the fulfilment journey, along with the estimated date of delivery.‍
• Hassle-free returns experience: Made it easier for customers to return & exchange their purchases by using the self-service customer portal. Return and exchange request initiation became a few-clicks process.

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Outcome

• Farmley curated a delightful delivery experience with real-time order tracking and notification alerts, memorable product unboxing, fresh and high-quality products delivered to customers, and a simple returns process
• 90+ team hours saved as efficient order tracking minimized customer complaints & queries
• Increase in prepaid versus COD orders through ecommerce automation
• Farmley’s NPS improved across the marketplace

Challenge #3:Increasing AOV with product kits and bundles

Average Order Value (AOV) is a metric that measures the average amount of money spent each time a customer places an order. AOV is directly proportional to revenue and profit; therefore, an increment in average order value (AOV) means an increase in earnings.

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Farmley was keen to capitalize on this strategy, but creating pre-built kits resulted in the following scenarios:

• Loss of sales as high-selling kits were selling out fast
• Loss of inventory as low-selling kits were piling up in the fulfilment centre
• Tied up inventory as the bundled SKUs were not available for individual sale
• Increased costs as pre-built kits meant expenses on assembly and labor

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Solution: Virtual kitting

Rather than going for a traditional way to execute kitting, Eshopbox's technology platform introduced virtual kitting to Farmley. Virtual kits can be stored as individual SKUs instead of pre-packaged kits in the fulfilment centres. Then, when the customer places an order, the SKUs are identified and bundled together in the fulfilment centre.

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Outcome

• Farmley bundles on the fly, which gives more inventory flexibility
• Improved conversion rates with exciting product options and offers
• Successfully increased AOV, directly impacting the revenue and profit
• 99.5% order accuracy maintained even with virtual kitting
• Farmley keeps costs in check as there’s no additional cost associated with virtual kits

Challenge #4:Offering Ultra-fast shipping while maintaining national coverage and reducing costs

With inventory stored in only a few warehouses in India, Farmley’s reach was limited to only a few regions. Additionally, they took 4-5 days to deliver orders while bearing high costs.

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• With orders coming in from customers across India, Farmley was hurting its profitability with national shipping charges for a large volume of orders.
• Farmley was using 1-2 courier partners to ship their orders with distinctive shipping rates. This meant complex billing, reconciliation, and difficulty in maintaining a single source of truth for orders.

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Solution: Superior shipping capabilities

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• Distributed inventory: Farmley split its inventory across all the Eshopbox fulfilment centres. This enabled them to ship most of their orders using local or zonal shipping—increasing delivery speed and reducing shipping costs.
• Eshopbox Shipping: Eshopbox offered a standard shipping rate card across multiple carriers to ship products to more than 28,000 pin codes across India. This helped Farmley slash shipping costs, and keep billing & reconciliation hassle-free.
• Same-day and Next-day delivery: Eshopbox automatically flags orders that can be delivered using the Same-day and Next-day delivery service by setting priority pick and pack in 3500 pin codes.
• Intelligent order routing: Eshopbox’s technology platform automatically assigns orders to the fulfilment centre nearest to the customer location & enables an optimized and speedy delivery.
• Advanced carrier selection: Eshopbox automatically selects the best carrier based on delivery speed and shipping costs

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Outcome

• Farmley witnessed a 200% increase in orders delivered within 2 days
• Increased its fulfillment reach across India by covering over 29000 pin codes
• Farmley is now offering ultra-fast shipping across the country, including same-day, next-day and express delivery
• The shipping costs no longer hurt Farmley’s profit margins due to a dramatic reduction

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