Hitting the Direct-to-Consumer Jackpot

Brands that have started flexing muscles to realign themselves with the new e-commerce scene have discovered that it is not something that they can order off-the-shelf. Moving to the D2C model has short and long-term ramifications and hence brands are scurrying to put in place their strategies that would boost their e-commerce game.

This fortune 500 cosmetic brand managed to penetrate the e-commerce structure through a huge network of eDistributors. Even so, it was difficult for the brand to boost profitability, achieve control and deliver a seamless customer experience. What they wanted was a comprehensive solution that would eliminate their e-commerce pain areas and enable them to reach directly to their consumer.

Challenges

The brand understood that the fragmented approach for online sales will not yield results in the long run. Therefore, they identified few key challenges that were restricting their D2C strategy.

1. Fragmented System for e-commerce operations

The brand had understood that the fragmented approach for online sales was tedious for them to control sell-out information across different e-commerce channels. Most times e-commerce distributors used to sell products offline or online and used substandard content that was readily available with them.

This restricted the brand’s chances of being visible on the first page on e-commerce marketplaces. The quality of a listing, therefore, directly impacted its online visibility and selling performance.

2. Need for Consumer Insights

The current e-commerce distribution model was tilted heavily against the interest of brands since it provided them next to minimal information about their consumers. Given the chaos that came with the possible substandard image created by eDistributors on online marketplaces, deprived them hitting the right mix of potential consumers; which eventually was leading the brand to incorrect or no customer segmentation.

As consumers worldwide relied on digital channels for shopping, they needed a platform built with their own capabilities in order to thrive in the new digital e-commerce space and be able to reach out directly to the end consumer. Realizing that the rich consumer insights could enhance their speed for go-to-market strategies, the brand was looking for a unified system that could help them collectively manage consumers and e-commerce enablers.

Implementation

To make their D2C initiative successful, they needed to connect their internal legacy systems to marketplaces. They also needed to set up systems for order management, payment reconciliation, and invoicing. The system also needed to be equipped with capabilities of providing real-time visibility of product-specific stock availability across marketplaces, customer claim management, financial reconciliation, and integration with the CRM system.

Apart from this, the system should have been enabled with capabilities that could push product information and quality content to marketplaces, product information management (PIM), digital assets management (DAM) and distribution, integration of backend systems such as SAP with marketplaces and warehousing systems of partners, and highly secure digital data warehousing capabilities to collect and store customer data, and sell-in and sell-out information

The quality of a listing directly impacts its online visibility and selling performance. Hence, when the brand wished to own the consumer experience with rich unified global digital content across marketplaces and digital platforms, having better product visibility, better listings, and premium slots from marketplaces would be effective. They also could get to know consumer response firsthand to a new marketplace-specific product launch and can use the insights to launch the product on mass retail distribution channels later.

When this fortune 500 cosmetics brand approached Singapore-headquartered Anchanto with their D2C solution requirement, the team looked at the problem statement from various perspectives and offered a comprehensive solution through Anchanto OMS, a robust yet customizable SaaS product that could be tailored as per a brand’s exact D2C requirements.

The team studied all existing systems of the brand and prepared a blueprint of the solution. The team then conducted intense training workshops for all relevant teams of the brand and explained in detail the workings of the solution. The team mapped all existing processes, current systems, and business processes and capabilities and offered a tailored D2C solution to the brand.

Anchanto OMS’s mature capabilities and rich experience of dishing out tailored solutions to ease out a brand’s e-commerce and D2C pain points came in handy as it seamlessly integrated all critical systems of the brand with one another and also with marketplaces across regions.

Anchanto OMS seamlessly connected and integrated the brand’s e-commerce replenishment system, manufacturing systems, warehousing systems, information systems, and every existing backend system that would play even the minutest role in the rollout. Anchanto OMS offered an inimitable solution to the brand that could drastically reduce their D2C strategy implementation timelines and also provide a panacea for all pain areas. The solution included country-wise rollout and integration of the brand’s systems such as IT, business, finance, manufacturing, warehousing, CRM, and SAP, among others. The solution also included the integration of their internal legacy systems to marketplaces to enable two-way communication.

Anchanto OMS empowered the brand with systems for

• Order Lifecycle Management

• Channel Integration

• Last Mile Carrier Integration

• Product Information Management (PIM)

• Digital Assets Management (DAM) and Distribution

• Payment Reconciliation

• Invoicing

• Two-way Inventory Synchronization for Real-Time Visibility

• Customer Claim Management

• Financial Reconciliation

• Promotions Management

Solution

Anchanto OMS provided the best possible D2C strategy implementation solution to the fortune 500 cosmetics brand as it also made their D2C foray compliant with country-wise restrictions.

a. Seamless operational flow

As part of the solution, the brand experienced Anchanto OMS’s seamless expertise and implementation of project management services, global UAT, regional and country-by-country rollout, integration of multiple critical internal systems and marketplaces, marketplaces coordination and collaboration. To top it all, the Anchanto OMS team also had new APIs built by marketplaces such as Lazada and Shopee particularly for the brand to enable seamless integration of all brand systems and marketplaces.

The global Fortune 500 cosmetics brand got a tailored solution in Anchanto OMS that enabled their transformation and foray into SEA as a D2C brand with a strong presence on all marketplaces.

b. Integrated systems across all channels

Anchanto OMS evolved its SaaS platform to accommodate and solve the brand’s pain areas by customizing its platform to suit their particular purpose and business requirements. The cosmetics brand successfully established the first-mover advantage and leadership in SEA and has clocked in a million orders already.

With Anchanto OMS, the brand achieved a workable and world-class digital strategy for their D2C initiative, along with turning key systems such as CRM, SAP, and finance to real-time insight producers.

Conclusion

The brand now has access to recognized D2C revenue in real-time with genuine monthly cut-offs. Bolstered by the results that their now-in-place D2C strategy has generated in a short span of time, the brand is upbeat about their performance in SEA and has put in place a new Digital BI team to decipher deeper consumer behavior based on the real-time data that their Anchanto OMS-powered new system generates from daily consumer transactions on various regional and global marketplaces.