The presentation I gave at IRE2013 ( http://www.internetretailexpo.com/ ).

1. The Tech Pieces
Birla – ZopNow
http://bkbirla.in/

2. Agenda
• Jokes
• Intros
• Even more stupid jokes
• What is eCommerce
• Understand all pieces in desi terms
• How to decide what tech to use

3. Rules
• Interrupt me I don’t have many slides
• Sleeping is fine, snoring is not
• I don’t know all the answers so I reserve the
right to say I dunno.
• I might not be able to reveal lot of data about
my company
• I am available for follow up discussions
outside the hall after the session.

4. Run

5. Who am I?
• IIT Kanpur ( entered and exited with great difficulty )
• Worked with Infosys and Amazon
• CTO at Asklaila
• Chief Music Officer at Bhoole Bisre Geet
• Chief Food Officer at Potluck Restaurant
• RJ with a radio station ( Radiowalla.in )
• Poet at large
• A PJ artist
• The only guy in shorts in this black suit conference

6. About my company
• ZopNow started in Oct, 2011
• Our tag line – Be Lazy, Buy Easy
• Online hypermarket
• We stock over 7000 SKUs
• Our customers come to us 3-4 times a month
• 25+ SKUs in every order and Rs 1500 as avg basket size
• Nandini Goodlife tetra pack milk is the most sold SKU
• Fastest eCommerce company - We do 3 hr delivery in
Bangalore of daily needs
• Mobile orders are bigger compared to web orders

7. Let us start with a PJ
• What comes after e-Commerce

8. F-commerce
• When you don’t get your e-Commerce
right, all the F words come to your mind
• Why the fruit tech guys charge so much
• What the fruit do all these acronyms mean
• Is eCommerce fruiting rocket science ( racket
science )
• I have the best site and price but nobody
comes here. What the fruit.

9. What is eCommerce after all
• MISC - Massively Integrated Supply Chain
• A supply chain is a system of organizations,
people, technology, activities, information and
resources involved in moving a product or
service from supplier to customer.
• Key is optimizing it by controlling various
aspects of it.

10. ZopNow timeslot issue
• We operate on 4 slots – 9-12, 12-3,3-6,6-9
• Orders used be maximum in morning slot
• Since this slot was the first slot for maximum
duration of time
• Leads to peaks and valleys in workload which
leads to bad people utilization
• 9-12 has lot of traffic on roads

11. ZopNow timeslot solution
• Introduced 25% more Zoppies for 12-3 and 3-6
slot
• The customers behavior completely changed
after that
• Changed customer behavior for business
benefits
• In next stage we will make it dynamic

12. Massively Integrated Supply Chain
• Automation of all processes is just the
beginning
• They key is in understanding their inter play

13. Inventory Supplier Logistics Warehouse
Mgmt Relations Platform Mgmt
Ordering Content Customer
Marketing
Platform Mgmt Service
Hosting / BI

14. Ordering System
• AKA – website or phone
• Understand what will work in your domain
• Understand offline process, if any in that domain
• Spend time in shops and see how customers interact
with products
• If you are on web, SEO is key
• Eg. We did a visible shopping basket because number
of SKUs is high’
• Lot of eCommerce companies are already doing 10%
biz on mobile
• Swayamvar Shopping

15. ZopNow Website

16. Content Management
• AKA – Tujh main rab dikhta hai
• Needed for SEO
• Combine text, images and videos
• Sharable content

17. Inventory Management – Key Aspects
• AKA – Yahan wahan, kahan kahan, poonchho
mat kahan kahan
• Stock correctness
• Inventory Analysis
• Pilferage management
• Auto Purchase Order generation to optimize
margins and fill rates

18. Logistics – Key Aspects
• AKA – Mera kuchh saaman, kisi ke paas pada
hai
• Outsourced vs Inhouse
• Kms travelled per order and per Rs
• Tell your customer where the order is

19. ZopNow Order Tracking

20. Marketing
• AKA – Mere Karan Arjun aayenge
• Why so many black suits?
• SEO is the key but it will fall flat without technical
depth
• SEO is like walk-ins in off line world
• Social – sharability of the content is key
– Laziness Contest
– Multi Tasking event
• Landing Page optimizations
• Promotions platforms

21. BBG Page

22. Lazy Knight

23. Supplier Relations
• AKA – Arre tu boli thi, pichhle jumme ko
• Understand who can supply how fast not just
prices
• Long run decisions have to combine both the
factors

24. Warehouse Management
• AKA – Dhoondho dhoondho re saajna, mere
kaan ka baala
• Just like mobile – incoming and outgoing
• The idea is to stay for shortest period of time

25. ZopNow Picker Sheet

26. Hosting
• Once upon a time there used to be something
called “Server Room”
• Cloud is like bachelors sharing a flat.
• The rent gets shared and reduces cost.
• All of a sudden some friends land up and you
can still squeeze them in – elasticity.
• And you hire a maid to manage all the dirty
linen.

27. BI
• AKA - Costly Common Sense
• Usually used to justify what you think with
data
• Start with Excels
• Excels can be connected to databases
• There is a lot you can do with them
• Use Google Analytics
• Use online docs and forms

28. ZopNow Customer Map

29. BI Dashboard

30. Customer Service
• AKA – when the customer gets fruited
• Use SAS solutions for tickets
• Use cloud telephony – many numbers behind
one number
• Do it yourself for angry customers
• Write personal mails
• Don’t outsource if possible

31. Key to Tech Decisions
• Don’t build a 10 lane highway and ride a bicycle
on that
• The cost of the medicines is dependent on the
doctor you choose
• You won’t learn things in conference rooms, be
out there
• Use online docs/forms.
• The best code is which is not written.
• Spend money as you see revenue.

32. Four Stages of eCommerce Software
• Stage 1 – Market places
• Stage 2 – Hosted Solutions
• Stage 3 – eCommerce platforms
• Stage 4 – Actually write code

33. Disclaimer
• All the characters depicted here are actual
people I have met and advised and are not
fictional. The people who have followed my
advise are still cursing me and I am on the run.

34. Mrs Arora
• Homemaker of 18 year exp
• Can spend 5 hrs in a apparel shop without
buying anything
• Uses FB a lot but does not know much tech
• Has very limited budget
• Has lots of time as her kids take care of
themselves now

35. Tech solution for Mrs Arora
• Build FB community
• Use online docs
• Get into a niche
• Spend time talking to your customers and
build relations
• Cost - Zero

36. Nature In a Bottle

37. Second to None

38. Mr Gupta
• Runs a supari business for years
• Inherited from parents
• Knows all the suppliers in Rajsthan
• Has deep relationship for them for decades
• Does not use internet

39. Solution for Mr Gupta
• Check out marketplaces first
• Get used to the concept of selling online
• Understand how to convey your value
proposition
• If market place gets traction, get into
readymade platforms ( SAS )

40. The Shah boy
• Rich father who has made lot of money
• His father loves him enough that he can spend
1-2 cr on it
• He knows a little bit of tech jargon

41. Solution for The Shah Boy
• Get a technical partner onboard
• Value your dad’s money

42. Abhinav dude
• Passed out of NIT
• Can generate 5 kgs of code in 5 mins
• Knows so many buzz words

43. Solution for Abhinav dude
• Don’t write code
• First see if existing options are good enough
• Copy DB schemas if you decide to write code
from open source platforms
• Remember the best code is which is not
written

44. Moral Science
• Don’t build a ten lane highway to ride a bicycle
• Techies will convince you that a twenty lane
highway is needed
• Wrong doctor gives costly medicines
• Use online docs/forms
• Use SAS – software as a service
• Cloud can prevent you from a rainy day
• Don’t take the crap from techies. Question it.
• Don’t waste money. It takes a lot of effort to earn
it.

45. Thanks
Doors are open now
Birla
ZopNow.com