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Shrinkhala'14 Jabong Caselet
Shrinkhala'14 Jabong Caselet
ecommerce
A Case Study on post purchase customer experience
in an Indian e-commerce company
Contents
1.
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Questions ............................................................................................................................................. 9
7.
Appendices ........................................................................................................................................ 10
Appendix 1 Order Fulfillment (Order cycle flow chart)........................................................................ 10
Appendix 2: Nature of query and volume.............................................................................................. 11
Appendix 3 Comparison of Trendy.com with Mykart.com and Magic.com ........................................ 14
Appendix 4: Resolution process .............................................................................................................. 14
Appendix 5: Costing for query and complaints ....................................................................................... 15
Appendix 6: Sales and cost data of e-commerce companies in India..................................................... 16
Page 1 of 16
1. Introduction
E-commerce industry has witnessed tremendous growth and attention in last 2 years and its
rampant increase in scale and coverage has set the growth story next best to rapid expansion
of software industry in early 90s.
Going by the extensive studies on the growth of this mysterious giant in making called ecommerce, the primary reasons can be attributed as follows:
E-Commerce is one of the most exciting spaces for todays global online community and
Indias young startup economy is along for the ride. In the less than three months of 2011,
Indian VCs have already invested over $50 million in seven e-commerce companies, a 400
percent increase over the same period just last year quotes Sony ceberwal, COO, exclusive.in.
Last 6 months have been very eventful for trendy.com with it earning reputation as one of the
leading e-commerce companies. The company has fared extremely well in terms of Views per
day, conversion & brand development featuring in almost all popular e-commerce forums.
Trendy.com has been able to capture the imagination of an average Indian customer by offering
a large catalogue of lifestyle products and a super-fast delivery service to boot quotes leading
forum for VC across the globe.
Ever since inception, the company has embarked on a huge mass communication campaign
through online advertising, social media marketing & multiple TV and radio commercials. It
created its own logistics network, pioneered in WH operations which ensured a significant
presence in the market within a very short span while others took at least two-three years to
build them up.
But the picture is not as rosy as it seems. Ecommerce offers many operational challenges that a
very few companies have been able to manage despite many new ventures budding every day.
The primary catalyst for ecommerce is word of mouth marketing. In lieu of the pertinent
skepticism like will I get my order in time, will it be the same as shown on website, will I get
my refund in time if I return the product, Is the product I am getting original, it is imperative
to practice what you preach for all ecommerce companies.
Page 2 of 16
Every query/grievance is essentially concerned with one particular function (mentioned above).
More than 80% of customer queries are handled on call.
Trendy.com has a dedicated in-house ticketing system to manage information and action flow
across function. The ticket management tool serves following requirements of the company:
Item-wise detail of the order: This explains where the order lies in terms of its
progress in the value chain. One of the following can happen to any item in the order:
Order placed but not confirmed (Confirmation happens only for COD orders. The
order is ready to be processed in WH only after confirmation)
Order confirmed (Order is ready to be processed in WH)
Order in WH (item is processing in WH)
Page 3 of 16
Item is dispatched (The item is shipped from WH through one of the 9 courier
partners )
Item cancelled (The item is cancelled by the customer or it is not available with
Jabong anymore)
Item returned (Item is returned by the customer after successful delivery which is
referred to as customer induced return or the item is returned without customer
interacting with it which is referred to as Non-deliverable returns)
Item refunded (customer is refunded the amount for the same)
Order details: All details related to customer and the order that is placed which
essentially contains:
Order Number of that order
Billing address and shipping address
Pin-code based TAT (delivery turnaround time for pin code of the shipping
address)
Phone number and e-mail ID
Item description of the order
Docket number assigned to shipment (Airway bill number)
Delivery service provider (DSP) tracking page: This tracking page details out docket
wise status of shipments dispatched from WH. The shipment detail can be broadly forward,
return & returned according to the DSP. Exact status of any order once it is shipped can be
traced only through the tracking page. A sample is as follows:
Page 4 of 16
Query:
Definition: Any query by the customer that is confined to normal course of order cycle (the
order cycle is attached in appendix 1) and can be answered using the tools mentioned above is
classified as query.
The nature of query and corresponding volume received on call is described in Appendix 2.
The nature of query-severity 1 is very repetitive. Most of the queries are successfully handled
through given resources & Customer satisfaction (CSat) on such queries are usually very high
Quotes Amit Sharma, Customer care head.
He continues If we manage to pull out a system that shares same amount and quality of
information to the customer, the human touch point for such queries could be made
redundant
This query follows following work flow:
Complaint:
Definition: Any query by the customer that concerns with an exception in the normal order
cycle (Commitment given to the customer is not met) or involves a grievance related to services
that we offer and hence needs intervention by concerned function is classified as Complaint
(Order cycle is presented in appendix 1)
Page 5 of 16
Query/Grievances
I havent received only one item
of the 2?
Not
dispatched When is order going to be
dispatched
Complaint parameters
Share
Postdispatch
10%
0.10%
30%
0.30%
60%
0.60%
40%
0.80%
30%
0.60%
10%
0.20%
5%
0.10%
15%
0.30%
Inbound customer queries are the most critical parameter of judging how close the company
is to the services it promises. It is very important to keep customer informed about every stage
of the order. Even more important when there is any exception related to dispatch or delivery
states Sunil Kumar, Director, and Logistics.
The major exceptions on which communication (e-mail, outbound call and SMS) is sent in
present infrastructure are as follows:
1. When any item in warehouse is not available in inventory and could not be picked within
24 hours from order placing (coined as unfulfilled item)
2. When vendor cant supply a particular item of the order in case of marketplace. (coined
as out of stock)
3. When order is placed but it is not serviceable by any courier company available in the
WH or marketplace (Coined as Out-of-delivery area)
All Rights Reserved by Jabong.com
% of
order
volume
Page 6 of 16
Trendy.com has fared well in terms of CSat scores and complaint resolution quality. The
comparisons of Trendy.com, company X and company Y on query handling is presented in
Appendix 3.
In simple terms what makes a complaint resolution effective is understanding issues of
customer and taking quick and effective action while keeping customer informed in every
stage of the process states Amit Sood.
The complaint resolution process is essentially a fairly complex process involving multiple
functions, incorporating scenario based solutions & a communication matrix to keep customer
informed at every stage of process. The process flow chart is presented in appendix 4.
Page 7 of 16
Page 8 of 16
6. Questions
1.
What are the key customer challenges and their root cause of Trendy.com. How do these issues
affect customer retention and to what extent?
2. Design an alternate channel for resolution of customer queries which can help the company
improve customer retention and costs and profitability.
a. What will be the key features of this system?
b. What will be the organization structure and KPIs? What will be the business impact of
this initiative in terms of revenue, cost and profitability for the company?
c. What will be the operational plan to ensure better CSAT and less response time?
d. What will be the implication on overall cost incurred on the same? Develop a predictive
model for the same.
3. What will be the roadblocks and risk in implementing this system? What is the plan for mitigating
the risk?
Page 9 of 16
7. Appendices
*(Appendix 2 and 4 are attached with the case study)
Page 10 of 16
Issue
bucket
Query
I am a repeat customer, do I
get a discount on the item
What is the colour of the item
Product
related
Others
Share
Bucket
Share
of
order
volume
30%
20%
5%
10%
20%
5%
5%
5%
8%
Page 11 of 16
Issue
bucket
Query
Others
Share
Bucket
Share
of
order
volume
50%
25%
5%
5%
20%
Page 12 of 16
Issue
bucket
Query
Others
Logistics
related
Share
Bucket
Share
of order
volume
50%
20%
5%
10%
10%
10%
Page 13 of 16
Trendy.com Mycart.com
Magic.com
Queries as percentage
of order volume
18%
22%
26%
94
97
96
86
NA
NA
% Of repeat complaints
2%
3%
1.80%
Page 14 of 16
Cost*
Rs 35 per call
Rs 35 per call
Rs 4 lpa
Salary-executive (Logistics)
Rs 2 lpa
dept.
Team name
Resources
1 Assistant
manager
3 Executives
WH
Customer care
1 executive
1 executive
1 executive
2 Team Leads
Complaint-escalation
team
15 executives
Deliverable
Handle complaint resolution
at the end of logistics
Handle Query tickets at
logistics end
Handle complaints at WH
Handle Query tickets at
WH
Handle and redirect complaints
to concerned divisions
700
4
3.7
40
80
Page 15 of 16
Trendy.com
Rs 2000
Mycart.com
Rs 1800
Magic.com
Rs 1500
1000 K
1.5
8000
Rs 400
2000 K
2.1
20000
Rs 350
800 K
1.8
11000
Rs 500
25%
30%
25%
10%
5%
8%
Rs 1000
Rs 600
Rs 800
1.8
2.5
2.2
Page 16 of 16