The Ideation Behind Anchanto
The most successful business people are the ones who are influenced from a young age and exposed to a particular business. Therefore, it was no surprise that Vaibhav Dabhade started a logistics business as it was a natural progression from his grandfather’s family-run logistics business in 1945.
Watching two generations of businessmen build the family business served as an influence in planting the entrepreneurial spirit in the future CEO. With logistics and technology close to his heart, he pursued an engineering degree followed by executive education at Harvard.
Upon completing his education, he decided to stay true to his logistics roots, but with the use of technology to bring a positive change in the industry.
It coincided with the boom in eCommerce; thus, they conceptualised an idea to simplify eCommerce logistics and multichannel selling for everyone in this ecosystem. With these thoughts, Vaibhav Dabhade, Abhimanyu Kashikar, Muhammad Shafique, and Julien Juttet started Anchanto in June 2011. The desire to deliver an ‘enchanting experience to our customers through their technology prompted them to come up with the name ‘Anchanto’.
Building Blocks Of Anchanto
The brand was sure that it wanted to serve the Southeast Asian market. However, it is a fragmented market with different cultures, languages, shopper bases, purchasing patterns, and a unique set of challenges was a challenge they had to overcome. This was when a decision was taken to become a seller, enabling them to understand the business dynamics of the region further.
Anchanto secured its first warehouse in Singapore and began multichannel selling for various European brands. This strategic move proved to be a game-changer for the brand, allowing them to understand their customers better and build a comprehensive SaaS system. Furthermore, they handled the channel management operations for over 2 years and analysed every intricate process detail and pain point they faced during this time.
This first-hand experience as eCommerce fulfilment experts helped them to build their products in a manner that could solve the practical pain points of their customers. It enabled them to bypass industry complexities and achieve remarkable success. Moreover, it also made the brand stand out from others as they developed technology on the wings of their practical experience.
They understood that complexities in eCommerce are primarily due to multichannel presence, vast and diverse inventory, the scale of operations, and connectivity with third parties for logistics, delivery, accounting, administrative services, etc. Hence, they built a system that helps businesses manage end-to-end operations keeping integrations and all processes in one place.
Behind The Scenes Of Anchanto’s Technology
Anchanto’s technology is developed based on their practical experience running warehouses and managing eCommerce operations for multiple brands during their initial years. They are a B2B SaaS technology company and do not buy inventory or run service shops or warehouses. Their experience allows them to help online businesses with inventory and logistics and run highly successful end-to-end multichannel eCommerce operations through two custom platforms – Anchanto OMS and Anchanto WMS.
Anchanto OMS helps businesses simplify and automate eCommerce backend operations related to inventory, orders, pricing, promotions, sales data, reports, catalogues, digital assets, and more across multiple channels on a single dashboard. Integrated with more than 200 eCommerce marketplaces, web stores, accounting tools, last-mile carriers, and ERPs such as SAP, Anchanto OMS helps businesses leverage other systems, platforms, and partners efficiently.
Anchanto WMS is a full-suite eWarehouse Management System for businesses that manage or operate warehouses for eCommerce (B2C) or retail businesses (B2B). Anchanto WMS comes pre-integrated with Anchanto OMS, enabling those using the WMS to receive, process, and fulfil orders across channels directly from their warehouses.
These technologies have been developed based on insights, feedback, and learnings from serving enterprises for 11 years across the globe. They listened to their customers and implemented the customer’s requirements into Anchanto’s software. This ability to understand the actual pain area of customers sets the brand apart from other players.
Here Are Some Market Insights And Target Groups
The eCommerce market will be worth $6.169 trillion globally by next year as online sales continue to grow by double digits. This means brands, retailers, distributors, enablers, and logistics companies catering to online retail and fulfilment must assess their current strategies and improve technology to cope with the rising eCommerce demand.
As an evolving eCommerce and logistics technology company, Anchanto aims to become the #1 SaaS solution provider in the digital space. To service the progressive needs of a wide range of customers, they introduce new features and develop unique products compatible with our customers’ requests. They anticipate larger order volumes being processed through their systems in the coming years and growing customer requirements to cope with sales, eCommerce strategies, and competition.
Anchanto’s target group is global businesses, Retailers, SMEs, Brands, Distributors, 3PLs, Warehousing Players, or any other business enterprise interested in running highly successful end-to-end eCommerce operations that can benefit from Anchanto’s technology. In other words, any business looking to set up, grow and expand its eCommerce or logistics operations is a potential business for the brand.
The OMS and WMS platforms have been designed and developed to help these businesses bypass the complexities of eCommerce and manage everything in-house instead of outsourcing and losing revenue. These products are being successfully used by eCommerce businesses of all sizes, from small DIY sellers to global brands, distributors, and logistics businesses to run end-to-end eCommerce operations.
Anchanto’s systems can readily integrate with the existing processes of customers. Their systems sync up with the customer’s existing processes and make them better. With a strong implementation team, Anchanto ensures that the transformation is smooth and hassle-free, so users don’t feel like they’re starting all over.
Key Problems Solved By Anchanto And The Solution It Brings
Some challenges faced by their target our target audience include:
- Disruption of ongoing operations as a result of shifting from legacy systems to tech-driven solutions.
- Complications while employing the B2C business model because most of the existing warehouse management systems are not built for eCommerce business needs.
- Struggles to overcome the fragmentation and manage backend selling operations such as IT Integrations, syndicating product information management, and distributing catalogues seamlessly on multiple channels.
- Hectic, costly, and risky situations on account of managing multiple brands, eCommerce stores, and inventory poorly.
- Difficulty handling inventory based on special requirements. Brands from different industries (for example, FMCG, cosmetics, electronics, fashion, etc.) have additional storage requirements. Some need standard storage, other necessitate expiry and batch management, temperature control, and special care. Not segregating inventory based on its requirements can lead to wastage, breakage, and loss of products.
Owing to their extensive experience in warehousing and logistics for several brands, Anchanto understands that every business has its own challenges. To overcome these hurdles, they follow a proven process to create a ‘Solution Blueprint’ for each customer. Their product consultants and experts work with all relevant stakeholders to create an innovative solution specific to that business.
Once the blueprint is created, a fit-gap analysis is conducted, proceeded by the delivery of a holistic implementation and training so that customers achieve their desired success. Additionally, their local offices and teams, present across several countries on different continents, help deliver the service to all our customers.
Anchanto’s Story Of Bringing Higher Revenue To Its Customers
There are several areas where Anchanto helps customers generate more revenue. These include but are not limited to-
1. Operation Automation
Anchanto OMS and WMS help eCommerce and logistics businesses automate end-to-end processes, from receiving orders to fulfilling them. This automation reduces manual intervention and also human errors.
2. Centralised Orders And Inventory
We offer customers complete control over their business by centralising orders and inventory from different sales channels (online and offline). They can track orders and inventory from a single dashboard and coordinate order processing and fulfilment operations to meet SLAs, work faster, and perform better on marketplaces.
3. Easy Listing And Management
With our system, brands, retailers, distributors, and eCommerce enablers selling on multiple platforms can go a step further and take their products live on as many platforms as they like, locally or globally. Our technology allows them to replicate listings on new channels and order management capabilities to increase revenue with the same efforts and resources they currently have.
4. Fulfilment Accuracy
Our highly accurate inventory management system ensures timely picking, packing, and labelling for shipment as per order specifications. That way, fulfilment SLAs are met, and cancellations and returns are reduced.
5. Better Performance On Marketplaces
Marketplaces recognise businesses when they perform well by meeting SLAs, keeping returns and errors low, and selling more. This will help them organically promote their goods and access premium marketplace benefits, features, or offers.
Also read: This Bootstrapped Company Is Changing The Face Of Healthcare One Patient At A Time
Competitors And Challenges of Anchanto
The first challenge is related to the size of the market and its growing need for technology. The confidence placed by various customers, coupled with Anchanto’s ability to maintain the system & provide the best support experience, has been instrumental in rising to this challenge. However, it is a great challenge as it relates to growth.
The second challenge is the complacency in the minds of traditional business leaders. However, the brand has been instrumental in changing this mindset significantly. The pandemic has also helped leaders see that offline businesses alone are insufficient.
The final challenge lay in the Asian eCommerce market layout itself. It is a dynamic and complex region often handicapped to align with end-consumer needs. Thanks to Anchanto’s SaaS solutions and its continuous optimisation through new features and upgrades, they can meet market requirements promptly.
The biggest competition so far is the complacency of potential customers towards the rapidly approaching digital transformation in the business world. This complacency is coupled with considerable laxity and an urge to keep holding on to the decade-old legacy retail and logistics systems.
Although many businesses realise they must align with the upcoming digital trends, many retailers, brands, distributors, and enterprises in Asia have yet to accept the enormity of technological transformation’s implications.
A Saas-Based Subscription That Is Backed By Venture Capitalists
Anchanto offers its customers an annual SaaS subscription for using their software platforms. The subscription cost is customised for each customer, so they do not have to pay for features they don’t need and can pay as they go.
They work with hundreds of global enterprises including Fortune 500 companies. Some of their top customers in Malaysia are Nestle, Panasonic, Pos Malaysia, Senheng, Sketchers, Luxasia, Valiram, MYDIN, Loreal, HP, DKSH, SnT Logistics, DIF Logistics, and UrStore, to name a few.
Anchanto is backed by leading venture capitalists, investors, and innovation experts. They boast of getting over 70% of their funding through their customers, a feat. Some are customers turned investors, which proves the need to revamp the business. To name a few, customers turned investors, Transcosmos, Luxasia, Telkom Indonesia, and Asendia. This is the greatest testimony of how powerful and stable their platforms are, and it represents the global trust companies have in us.
They consider themselves lucky to have an ecosystem of leaders who recognise and believe in the brand. The ethical work culture is deeply engraved in their workflows, products, processes, and people. It enables the brand to keep growing, enter new markets, and expand its customer base year on year.
They have been profitable since January 2020 which is excellent performance considering the COVID-19 crisis and the global economic situations that impacted multiple business landscapes. As Anchanto’s technology successfully aligned with the eCommerce acceleration spurred on by COVID-19, they raised fresh funding in the middle of the pandemic as a part of the ongoing C round.
The Plan Going Ahead
Anchanto’s marketing blueprint is focused on three main angles: Spreading Awareness and Education, Geographic Expansion, and Product Addition. Given the complexities and fragmentation that inhibit a smooth transition for retail and logistics businesses towards digital transformation, they believe it’s imperative as a technology company to educate customers about the industry shift. With sufficient insights and a practical understanding, the potential and purpose of eCommerce will become clear, and they will be appropriately positioned to give these businesses the boost they need.
The next focus is to assist the geographical expansion and set up operations in the new markets. They are already scaling their presence in newer markets like the Middle East, Korea, and Europe.
Finally, the focus is also on assisting with new product launches. Their new products have been designed to meet specific requirements and give customers advanced capabilities to take their operations to the next level.
The Story Going Forward
The brand concentrated on eCommerce in the Asia Pacific because these markets are dominant with significant unmet opportunities. The main focus has been the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. You can check here to know more.
With superior internet penetration, stable payment systems, and increasing adoption of technology amongst the masses, eCommerce has opened a two-way street for brands and businesses to explore APAC markets and for the local businesses in these regions to test international waters. Anchanto believes they are positioned perfectly to deliver the right technology through their cutting-edge SaaS products, which simplify and coordinate local and cross-border retail models and offer uninterrupted access to top digital platforms in APAC.
They will launch new product offerings, including a data platform. They have recently entered the Middle East market. They are looking to continue reaching new potential customers across the globe in countries such as the US, UK, Spain, and Germany, amongst many others.
Details About The Founders
Anchanto’s founding team consists of-
- Vaibhav Dabhade, Founder and CEO of Anchanto
- Abhimanyu Kashikar, Co-founder and COO of Anchanto,
- Shafique Muhammad, Co-founder of Anchanto,
- Julien Juttet, Co-founder and CFO of Anchanto.
They share a deep connection with relationships dating back to college days and as co-workers. Their shared vision and values are the driving force behind Anchanto’s success.
