After closure of B2B vertical of Dealshare, will Udaan/Ninjacart/Elasticrun, etc. also close this vertical? Anyone from these companies who can share some details as to what's going on?
Disclaimer - I haven’t worked for these companies but have a fair share of B2B eComm understanding.
Hypothesis - The success of B2B eComm (likes of Alibaba) in China and early traction for flipkart in B2C space gave VCs a hypothesis that a similar success can be repeated in India.
My interpretation of gaps -
Unstructured logistics - We as a country are still behind (and aggressively working) making full utilisation of logistics at scale. Alibabas of the world own and operate a fleet consisting of planes, ships and rails. The best possible arbitrage opportunity for B2B commerce player is fleet only. We don’t have any such player in the market. In fact, people still consider “asset-light” model as the best model 🥲
Pilferage - This is the single largest margins killer, we are in process to improved warehousing and it will take some time. A strong law related to such activities will also be required to curb unfair practices (I am sure you would have seen those stealing videos behind the moving trucks).
Taxation - We were late to the simplified tax party, before that state specific taxation policies encouraged local mafias to control the distribution and not let a bigger player waste time on state borders.
Poor logistics talent (controversial) - Basis my interactions with folks from Udaan to JioMart to Delhivery to EcomXpress, I feel the product, processes are too archaic. The supply chains to an outsider look digitised but they are only at the end-points leaving the huge dark area of moving inventories. To me it is only because we lack the talent which can help uncover those mysteries.
I believe that the main reason is low margins rather than high costs. Costs can be optimised.. Increasing margins is difficult.. companies like these used to give very high discounts for customer acquisition and now if they increase the prices they will lose customers..
Udaan already screwed
Heard they might raise a down round.
Dhandha hai. Tech business nahi
Ninjacart also in bad shape, they've apparently vacated office space.
F
