Anchanto: Cross-Platform E-Commerce Logistics And Selling Solution

Vaibhav Dabhade, CEO & Founder

Earlier a software company could expect its customers to change the way they operated to fit the specifications of the software but it isn’t that way anymore. Vaibhav Dabhade, CEO & Founder of Singapore-based SaaS company Anchanto, knew that he was catering to a very mature marketplace. Thus, what Anchanto needed was a way to differentiate itself for sustainable competitive advantage while minimizing a customer’s current way of working, and the secret lied in three areas: UX (user experience), reliability, and flexible APIs.

The company presents a cross-border, fully featured e-commerce platform– Dabhade describes it as “enterprise-level functionality without over-complicating things” – and yet the customer interface is as intuitive as possible. This was because ease of use was agreed as a central principle for the product design from the word go. There is no question of asking the customer to abandon legacy systems – if they are a fundamental part of how the customer operates, Anchanto will develop a way of integrating them. These individual customer developments then become part of the mainstream offering, providing an organic growth of the platform.

Redundancy is also built into the system; when a customer’s network connection is down, they can still trade, check the customer information, and bring up key facts, with transaction details being transmitted to head office when the network is restored. Dabhade describes Anchanto’s technology as “cloud-enabled, but not cloud-dependent. If you have hundreds of locations, the cloud can make things a lot easier – but there are still plenty of companies who want in-house technology running on their own servers.”

So, what is this technology? It’s a cross-border, cross-platform e-commerce logistics solution. It doesn’t matter what platform you use to sell on (your own in-house system or one of the well-known operations), Anchanto can interface with it. Indeed, a number of customers have in the past found the need to use a multiplicity of platforms, and Anchanto can work with that too.
Dabhade is under no illusions about who wears the trousers in today’s supplier-customer relationship. “If you don’t provide what the customer wants, the customer goes elsewhere. The times when software companies could dictate the terms are over. We live in a customer-focused world, and we are all the better for the same. If you don’t have exactly what the customer needs and wants, you need to carry out the development until you do. You integrate with what’s there – legacy systems and all. Customers are no longer prepared to design their workflow around your system. They expect you to adapt your systems to match their workflow. So that’s what we do.”

The company’s latest product, a one-stop platform named as SelluSeller enables merchants and enterprises to sell on various e-marketplaces across Asia. “Sellers are also looking for simple platform to sell their products regionally in to Southeast Asia and India on cross-border model. SelluSeller is designed and built for cross-border listing and shipping from day one,” adds Dabhade.

Anchanto allows the sellers to manage prices and promotions and maintain a single common inventory interfacing with an order system. Growth has been organic and continues, by no means restricted to the company’s roots in Singapore and Australia.

Dabhade Is Under No Illusions About Who Wears The Trousers In Today’s Supplier-Customer Relationship. If You Don’t Provide What The Customer Wants, The Customer Goes Elsewhere

Existing customers include many of the biggest retail companies in Europe, U.S., Australasia, and North America, operating independently or through online marketplaces such as Qoo10, Lazada, ZALORA, Snapdeal, Flipkart, ShopClues, Amazon, eBay to name a few. Integrations with payment merchants, logistic players and webstores across more than 9 countries further strengthen this ecosystem led proposition.

Anchanto clearly leads the way in the logistics sector with its cross border network. The company has had a fulfilling journey of assisting logistics companies across geographies to transact conveniently at a mere cost.

Anchanto continues to fulfill the need for cross border network among global logistics companies that do order fulfillment globally. “We turn that possibility into reality for 3PL companies which can now do shipment for local ecommerce sellers and enable them to ship globally. On the selling front, we enable sellers to seamlessly integrate with logistics companies and outsource their logistics,” contentedly adds Dabhade.

Since its inception in 2011, Singapore-based Anchanto has assisted a multitude of businesses simplify their logistics operations. A case in point here is that of an Italian logistics company BGroup that has been in business for over two decades. BGroup works for luxury fashion brands like Gucci, Prada, Valentino, and alike as a logistics partner and was recently transitioning from B2B logistics to B2C logistics. The company has 22 warehouses in 16 countries. Anchanto associated with the BGroup to assist them with the transition and deployed its logistics platform in their premises. With Anchanto platform, they could smoothly make the transition and even reach the desired revenue uplift. B-Group’s vision was to increase their B2C revenue stream to at least 20 percent in the coming year and Anchanto made it possible for them.

Anchanto assured similar outcomes to another Singapore-based project logistics company. It helped the client increase their warehousing capacity to double. Anchanto has created many such success stories where businesses have achieved significant outcomes by moving to Anchanto platform. This is the reason Anchanto in less than a decade has carved a vast client base across various global locations. The company, however, still has a long way to go. Anchanto doesn’t just have an expansion plan to abide by, but also has an extensive roadmap to expand its platform. Dabhade adds, “We want to deploy our technology across different 3PL companies and consolidation companies. We want to deploy this in North America, South America and Middle East. We are very strong in South East Asia, Japan, and India. Now our plan is to go global.” Talking about the expansion on the technology front, Dabhade aims to focus on an integrated solution, which focuses on the Point of Sale (POS). This would be a key focus area for the company in the near future. Anchanto aims to have specialization in everything from enabling logistics, inventory management, and POS to back office warehouse support.

Anchanto also plans to focus on enabling and integrating all the aspects of sales–online, offline, retail, warehouse management, and B2B sales. Another focus area for the company, in the next few years, would be the small logistics companies based. The company aims to create a version of its software which will be used by logistics companies based in tier two cities which will run a micro fulfillment centre using Anchanto platform.

The future plans laid out by Anchanto make it evident that the next few years are going to bring immense growth for the company and its clients. Dabhade optimistically summarizes it by adding, “As our network grows, there will be more adoption of Anchanto platform. It’s more of a network enabler than just the software service and also the first of its kind platform which simplifies warehouse management and cross border shipment.”

- Shivali Shrama
May 02, 2017