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TechGraph recently sat down with Sushant Suri, Co-founder of ANS Commerce to understand how ANS Commerce is Shaping the e-commerce segment through its innovative services.
Read the complete transcript here:
TechGraph: Before we start the interview, can you let our readers know more about ANS Commerce?
Sushant Puri: ANS Commerce is a full-stack e-commerce enabler helping brands sell online through its array of tech-enabled solution stacks including brand store tech, performance marketing, marketplace management, and e-commerce warehousing and fulfillment.
Having closely observed the market and realizing that brands often find it challenging to get traffic on their website through performance marketing, all four of us, I, Vibhor Sahare, Amit Monga, and Nakul Singh, decided that we will focus on this domain and would want brands to focus on their product and leave ‘all-things-e-commerce’ to us. That’s how ANS Commerce came into existence in 2017.
We help brands acquire consumers, power brand stores, and jumpstart marketplace operations in no time. Today, ANS Commerce is a team of 150+ e-commerce enthusiasts and caters to 100+ brands across sectors including Jack & Jones, Bath & Body Work, Portico, Bikanervala, ITC, Vero Moda, Mars, Nivea, etc.
TechGraph: What was the story behind the launch of ANS Commerce? How did it all start?
Sushant Puri: After the initial success in improving the marketing ROI for brands, we realized that the brand store tech was becoming a bottleneck for them and hampering true scale and performance, thereby impacting growth. This is when we decided to create an exclusively India-focussed platform – Kartify, to address this issue. We found that there was an instant uptake for this marketing and technology combo.
However, later on, we also noticed that brands also sought platforms that could help in efficient warehouse management and e-commerce fulfillment since they did not possess the required expertise in managing turnaround time, customer expectations from online businesses, and the SLAs of the marketplace.
All of these solutions combined would create an all-encompassing platform and offer huge scope to leverage technology and build efficient systems, we decided that ANS Commerce will be the one-stop e-commerce enablement solution for brands selling online.
TechGraph: How do you feel ANS Commerce stands out from other big players who are already in this business?
Sushant Puri: Having realized that the only way to truly create an impact for brands and address the issues they face is to offer comprehensive end-to-end solutions, ANS Commerce has a core team whose expertise lies in product, e-commerce, retail, marketing, and leveraging technology to drive operational efficiency, giving it a competitive edge in the market.
Besides, our full-stack solution also enables brands not only to create their brand stores online but also jumpstart their marketplace operations in no time. Our compelling, all-inclusive solutions have a product-tech focus built through extensive experience and expertise allow brands to achieve higher sales, and facilitates stronger brand differentiation and smart e-commerce.
TechGraph: What are the industry challenges you have observed that coerced you to jump into this space?
Sushant Puri: Brands are increasingly shifting towards e-commerce but often find it immensely challenging to manage performance marketing and struggle to increase traffic to their websites. Many brands with limited resources and technology engagement struggle to develop a strong brand presence in the increasingly competitive market.
This is when we decided to utilize our expertise and experience in the domain to simplify e-commerce for them. Post the initial success in increasing the marketing ROI, we saw that brands also found that brand store tech was becoming a bottleneck issue. This is when we launched our own India-focussed, feature-rich brand store platform Kartify and saw that the tech + marketing combo was gaining immense traction.
Soon after this, we saw several brands requesting assistance in the management of warehousing since streamlining and managing turnaround times, customer expectations, etc., was beyond their area of expertise. That’s when we understood that combining all these solutions would bring them under a single umbrella of e-commerce enablement and decided to make ANS Commerce a one-stop-shop for e-commerce brands.
Furthermore, currently, we are witnessing brands reimagining their distribution models and opting for omnichannel, D2C, hyperlocal deliveries, etc. This comes on the back of the recent supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.
They are also looking to manage different operational models across marketplaces and brand stores. All in all, we have seen that the major challenges that brands face are in the form of streamlining their e-commerce fulfillment, warehousing, performance marketing, brand store tech, and marketplace management.
TechGraph: Could you please walk us through the key features offered by ANS Commerce?
Sushant Puri: ANS Commerce helps brands increase customer acquisition, power brand stores, and jumpstart marketplace operations quickly and seamlessly. ANS Commerce’s team has extensive experience across product, e-commerce, retail, and marketing, helping brands achieve higher sales and stronger brand differentiation. Our solutions are:
• Brand store tech platform – Kartify
• End-to-end performance marketing
• Marketplace and warehousing operations
Our brand store platform – Kartify is pre-integrated with 60+ partners (such as Unicommerce, Fynd, Delhivery, Razorpay, etc.). We also offer sales-focused performance marketing, marketplace management, and warehousing & logistics solutions for brands.
TechGraph: What, according to you, is the scope of an e-commerce enablement platform like this in the Indian market?
Sushant Puri: India’s e-commerce market is one of the fastest-growing in the world and alongside this, the e-commerce enabler market is also seeing astronomical growth. Indian brand e-commerce market will be $80B-$100B and brands e-commerce enabler market will be >$10B by 2026.
Brands are looking for direct control of their sales and marketplaces and aim to cultivate the brand store as an exclusive channel. Given this rapid evolution and growth, the scope for e-commerce enablement platforms will only continue to grow further in the coming years.
TechGraph: Leading the sector from the front, what according to you is one of the biggest pain points of e-commerce business that need to be addressed?
Sushant Puri: Some of the key pain points in the e-commerce business are targeted brand store traffic, customer retention, and achieving viable unit economics even at a low scale. Addressing these pain points and bridging the existing gaps will allow businesses in the ever-evolving e-commerce space to grow faster.
TechGraph: Is there any plan to enter new vertices too?
Sushant Puri: ANS Commerce is constantly evolving and growing and there are several products that we have in the pipeline to better solve the e-commerce related problems faced by brands such as return management, cataloging, marketing optimization at scale, etc. Additionally, we are also focusing on B2B marketplace enablement. We will be expanding our footprint in the coming years.
TechGraph: What is the roadmap for ANS Commerce going forward?
Sushant Puri: By 2026, we aspire to drive over ~2% of all e-commerce sales in India and to become the preferred partner for every brand in the country for ‘all things e-commerce’. In the short term, particularly over the next 18 months, we will be working towards this goal by signing up more partner brands, enhancing our product offerings and come up with new ones, and drive value to our clients while working together as one team.