Understanding Pickrr's Product Strategy, To Survive In A $15 Billion 3PL Market,

The $400 billion Indian e-commerce industry has evolved alongside the 3PL market, which is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 16–18% over the next few years.

Despite a growing market, many 3PL companies have struggled to keep up with the strict requirements of the sector, which is constantly in need of ground-breaking but affordable solutions.

The co-founder and CEO of Pickrr, Gaurav Mangla, outlines the 3PL player's primary focus areas for 2023.

As they serve the rapidly expanding Indian e-commerce market, which is predicted to be worth $400 Bn by 2030, third-party logistics (3PL) players like Pickrr and its ilk are guided by three north-star metrics: efficiency, reliability, and affordability.

The 3PL market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 16–18% from roughly $7.34 billion in 2020, according to a report by Inc42, driven by the rising demand for effective and affordable logistics solutions across the e-commerce space since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The 3PL industry is fiercely competitive and price-sensitive, so even for industry leaders, the growth journey won't be easy, according to Gaurav Mangla, cofounder and CEO of Pickrr.

3PL companies must offer best-in-class shipping, warehousing, inventory management, and other value-added services to help their clients cut costs and maximise efficiency at competitive prices if they want to stand out from their many competitors.

Additionally, it will take numerous hours of research, careful observation of important industry trends, ongoing communication with brands to comprehend their rapidly shifting needs, and the application of AI-ML to analyze millions of data points.

Even so, a lot of 3PL companies have fallen short of the high standards set by a sector that is always looking for innovative but affordable solutions.

Mangla stated, "If you are introducing a product/service that may not have a significant 'positive' impact on your customer's business or cannot add value/dimensions, you can be replaced.

Gaurav Mangla, co-founder and CEO of Pickrr, spoke one-on-one with Inc42's Trisha Nayyar about the company's growth from inception to acquisition by Shiprocket, how the 3PL player attained product-market fit, and an inside look at the process of product launch.

The Gurugram-based 3PL player was first established as a last-mile delivery service when it was founded in 2015 by Mangla, Rhitiman Majumder, and Ankit Kaushik. Even though Pickrr achieved product-market fit (PMF) in three months by serving high-volume clients like healthcare platform 1mg (later acquired by the Tata group), e-commerce site Snapdeal, and other businesses looking for 3-24-hour delivery windows, the cofounders realised it was a high-cash-burning venture.

Pickrr re-cracked the PMF after five years, three pivots, and countless product iterations, emerging as an AI-powered 3PL player serving more than 29K pin codes throughout India.

The situation improved even more after Pickrr was acquired by 3PL aggregator Shiprocket in 2022, and the two parties began collaborating to innovate and increase system transparency.

What are the most important guidelines and metrics that Indian logistics startups should follow when developing and releasing their products?

Cost-effective value addition is the first thing that businesses need to keep in mind. The next step, in Mangla's opinion, is to have a clear understanding of the purpose behind the product's launch. Is it intended for market share gain (land grab) or retention (retention plus growth), or both? Additionally, a new product must increase sales.

 "Improving doesn't just mean raising the revenue. Such new launches will make a lot of sense if you can increase margins on current sales while gratifying customers by improving their lives, according to Mangla.

Mangla claimed that despite the challenging funding climate and investors' insistence on results (read: profitability), Pickrr had always introduced new products to support its mission of a seamless customer experience.

According to him, "We don't do new launches for the benefit of any VC or under any funding pressure."

Now that 2022 has come to an end, which was chaotic and difficult, Mangla is optimistic about the future.

Regarding market trends, he stated, "Pickerr is witnessing the emergence of numerous D2C brands, the growing digitalization of B2B e-commerce, and the need for quicker and more effective logistics solutions by a number of offline brands."

Mangla claims that while the 3PL player is working hard to create a global ecosystem, Pickrr is not in a rush to address all issues (read: opportunities) at once.

As he put it, "We will concentrate on two or three key areas where we see good results and have a clear vision of how to scale them at least 5-6X."