E-commerce enabler platform GoKwik, which has partnered with more than 500 direct-to-consumer or D2C brands, saw more than three-fourth of the orders during the festive season originating from Tier 2/3 locations.
The period between July and September 2022 saw 77 per cent of the total orders coming from such locations with the partner brands registering a growth of nearly 30 per cent in the gross merchandise value or GMV when compared to previous quarter.
The Gurugram-based venture, which was founded in November 2020 by Chirag Taneja, Ankush Talwar and Vivek Bajpai, currently has partnered with over 500 brands including popular names like The Man Company, Boat, MamaEarth, Noise, Neeman’s, Fire-Boltt and Man Matters among others.
Meanwhile, the conversion rate for D2C brands on the GoKwik network was as high as 33 per cent, which was on par with the previous quarters despite a 20 per cent higher order volume in the pre-festive sale period.
Further, cash on delivery (COD) remained the most preferred mode of payment with a 30 per cent jump in GMV.
The share of COD orders to prepaid also remained as high as 75 per cent thereby effectively proving that consumers from the hinterland are comfortable paying cash on delivery while doing online shopping.
Interestingly, higher COD orders typically increase the chances of Return to Origin (RTO) rate – the share of orders returned before delivery – though GoKwik managed to contain the RTO rate at 25 per cent despite a significant jump in the overall share of COD orders.
“Containing the RTO rate was possible since GoKwik’s RTO suite could identify high risk transactions that increased by 5% in this sale period and take necessary interventions to stop these orders from resulting in returns,” said Chirag Taneja, Cofounder and CEO, GoKwik.
The ecommerce enablement company focuses predominantly on boosting conversion rates for partner brands by using AI/ML technologies to solve issues like returns on COD orders and checkout conversions among other things.
GoKwik's solutions have enabled brands to improve checkout conversion rates leading to higher gross merchandise value (GMV) realisation and reduced marketing customer acquisition cost (CAC).
The platform is backed by marquee investors including Matrix Partners India, RTP Global, Sequoia Capital and Think Investments along with well-known angel investors.
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