E-commerce logistics and shipping software solution company Shiprocket considers itself a game-changing conversion tool that aims to revolutionize online shopping. After raising $33.5 million, the company became a unicorn in August 2022.
After seeing that 30 percent of the company's transactions are manually initiated on the platform, primarily through chat interfaces on social media applications, the company has been focusing on WhatsApp.
Speaking to Moneycontrol, Saahil Goel, MD and CEO of ShipRocket said, “We're betting big on WhatsApp. For the SMB universe, it's a very powerful tool. And it's actually a very powerful distribution channel because it's there for everybody in India. So, there's going to be more work on WhatsApp that you will see in the market and from ourselves in the next 12 to 24 months.”
The company has already integrated its SaaS dashboard with WhatsApp. This will help merchants set up a shopping experience on the social media app, as per the report.
Goel had a simple principle: bring together logistics providers such as Delhivery, Xpressbees, Ecom Express, FedEx, and Blue Dart onto one platform.
This enabled small cosmetics or fashion brands to select a logistics partner quickly, considering factors like pricing and ratings. During FY20 to FY23, increased e-commerce usage and the emergence of new consumer brands led to the company's revenue surging from Rs 161 crore to Rs 1,089 crore.
Shiprocket faces a challenge with logistics aggregation despite its high gross merchandise value of Rs 25,000 crore ($3 billion) in FY24. Praful Poddar, Shiprocket's chief product officer, told Moneycontrol that logistics make up only 10–15 percent of small and medium businesses, total expenses, with marketing at 30–40 percent and the cost of goods sold at 20–25 percent.
To address this, Shiprocket offers 15 products like influencer aggregation tools, telemarketing automation, revenue-based financing, WhatsApp commerce, ONDC integration, and a data analytics API marketplace for cross-selling to customers.
Talking about the importance of moving up the value chain, the company said that, as per Moneycontrol, at least 50 percent of the company's 100,000 monthly active sellers use at least three of the products.
Founded in 2012, the company has raised $353 million as of now. It is backed by investors such as Temasek, PayPal, and Nirvana Ventures Advisors, as per the data platform Tracx.
