‍How a leading personal care & home fragrance brand seamlessly processed 170,000 orders in a month while handling fragile product deliveries 

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About the brand

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The brand has been the world's leading specialty retailer of personal care & home fragrance products for over 20 years. It has 1,700+ North American stores and nearly 300 stores in countries around the globe operating under franchise, license, and wholesale arrangements. Its products are also available on its direct-to-consumer (D2C) website.

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Flashback

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Expanding its global reach, this premium international brand entered India in 2018, and started exploring options to build its own D2C website in 2019.

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By the last quarter of 2019, the brand decided to partner with Fynd for its website. It immediately received a ton of online orders. The brand used Fynd Platform for backend systems like end-to-end order management, and Fynd's website development partner—ANS e-commerce platform to build the frontend.

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Order Metrics

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Within the first month, in December 2019, the website received around 85,000 orders. In July 2020, the order volumes reached an all-time high of 133,000 orders and 170,000 in January 2022.

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Leveling Up

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Fynd was at its nascent stage back then. It was neither experienced to process this quantum of orders, nor had it worked with a brand of this product category, leading to some teething problems.

This case study highlights how Fynd overcame these challenges with the support of the brand and its partners,  and helped the brand scale in this new market. Today, the brand is beloved by the Indian audience due to its luxurious products, and ease of availability on its D2C website.

The 3 key elements behind the success of this partnership were:

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1. Stable Product
2. Dedicated Service
3. Solid Logistics

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1. Stable Product

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Challenge

The order volumes were massive on this website—a scale that Fynd had not previously worked with. Such heavy traffic can potentially lead the order management system (OMS) to crash.

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Solution

Equipped with autoscaling, the Fynd Platform OMS could process as many as 170,000 orders in a month. 

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Impact

The system remained stable, causing no major operational glitches or interruptions to the brand, earning the brand's trust as a reliable partner.

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2. Dedicated Service

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Challenge

This brand posed three novel factors for Fynd to tackle:

1. Large order volumes

2. New product category

3. Brand's entry into a new market

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Solution

To address the special needs of the brand, Fynd set up a designated team that:

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1) Offered immediate support

The team was available 24x7 to assist the brand.

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2) Emailed customized reports twice a day

Since it was a new geographic area for the brand, performance was constantly monitored. Fynd shared all the required data points in customized reports to help the brand establish itself in the new market.

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3) Knowledge transfer

Since the frontend of the website was built on a third-party platform, Fynd had no direct involvement in making any changes. However, having worked with several brands, Fynd has expertise in the knowhow & good practices of the industry.

Fynd played an active role in helping the brand grow its Indian online marketplace with suggestions for performance enhancement.

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4) Tech support on the frontend

Fynd worked collaboratively with the brand and website developers on tech integrations and also offered tech support to implement the suggested performance-enhancement changes on the website.

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5) Troubleshooting

Fynd did not directly work on the development of the website. However, in troubleshooting cases, Fynd had a team to assist the website development team.

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Impact

1. The brand developed strong trust with Fynd’s exceptional service 

2. The brand got additional support for entering a new market

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3. Logistics

The most interesting element of this case study is how Fynd addressed the logistics needs of the brand.

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Challenge

Many orders on this website contained fragile products like candles and small glass jars, and the rate of damaged goods was high.

Since Fynd had not worked in this category before, it demanded special attention towards logistics.

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Solution

1. Physical visits to the brand warehouse

2. Multiple audits for both packaging & process

3. Deep dive into the entire delivery journey

4. Working in close partnership with the logistics partner—Delhivery

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Impact

A significant drop in the rate of damaged goods.

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Detailed Layout of How Fynd Addressed Fragile Product Shipments

The various logistics touchpoints for product shipment are:

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Team Fynd visited the brand's warehouse and conducted a detailed audit to assess the cause of the goods' damage. 

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The challenges identified can be broken down into two aspects: 1) Packaging and 2) Process

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1. Packaging

Challenge

1. Inappropriate packaging material

Being an international brand, it used the same packaging material used globally—sourced from Singapore. This was good for international shipping standards but turned out to be unsustainable in the Indian logistics environment. Transit packages here suffer rough handling, starting at the brand warehouse. 

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2. Improper-sized boxes for packaging

The cartons used for the final packaging of products were of inefficient size. Smaller products packed in larger cartons were damaged during the transit, even after being bubble wrapped.

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Solution

Fynd's logistics team worked closely with the brand to modify packaging norms. 

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As a result, the brand started:

1. Using 3-ply cardboard packaging, suitable for the Indian market.

2. Packing products in accurate-sized boxes, leaving minimal space for any movement during the transit

3. Using air cushions around the products

To validate the safety of the packaged products, the Fynd team would randomly conduct "drop tests", where packages were physically dropped and tested.

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2. Process

Challenges related to the process can again be split into 1) Onsite and 2) During transit

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1. Onsite

The journey of a product begins at the brand warehouse itself.

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Challenge

At the brand warehouse, the packaged goods were loaded into the delivery vans. During loading, the staff may occasionally act carelessly or neglectfully and damage the products.

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Solution

Fynd stationed a designated team that monitored the process and ensured gentle transfer into the delivery vehicles.

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Impact

Reduction in breakage of products during the loading stage.

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2. During transit

There were two major challenges during transit:

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Challenge #1: Product Handling

Although such products are labeled "FRAGILE" on the outside, there is no specific system for special care of these packages at the delivery hubs and during transit.

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Solution

In collaboration with its logistic partner—Delhivery, Fynd created new guidelines and customized SOP for shipments of this brand.

New tags with fragile labeling were introduced in the system, where fragile products were color-coded and flagged within Delhivery’s digital systems at the backend.

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Impact

Labeled packages were handled with special care leading to reduction in breakage during transit.

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Challenge #2: Transit Channels

The standard logistics route mapped for regular deliveries involves 2-3 ‘change of destination’ (COD) centers. Each COD increases the chance of damage due to loading and unloading.

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Solution

Fynd took the following steps, in collaboration with Delhivery, to minimize the impact on the packages during the transit journey:

1. Charted out new routes for these packages, with minimal transition points

2.  X-ray scanning at all checkpoints to monitor breakage during transit

3.  Special workforce from the Delhivery team at Delhivery warehouses

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Impact

1. A significant drop in the rate of damaged goods

2. Minimized transit period

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Special Note

It was only because of a strong business relationship with its delivery partner–Delhivery, that Fynd offered the above-mentioned logistic solutions for this brand.

Support from Delhivery

• Assigning dedicated vehicle(s) for this brand's shipment, due to their high volume of orders

• Customized route for this brand's products, reducing transit points

• Modification in the systems at the backend

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Conclusion

This success story demonstrates Fynd’s ability to adapt to new categories, handle record-breaking traffic by autoscaling, and to step up for its brands based on their immediate needs. During a critical time, such as entering the Indian market, Fynd went the extra mile to help the brand grow and delight its customers with its D2C ecommerce website.

If you are an international brand looking to expand into new markets, or even new categories that we may not work with, get in touch with our experts for solutions that go beyond what you are looking for.