In an exclusive interview with SME Times, Parinay Itkan, co-founder of Shyplite, a logistics solution and automation platform enabling retailers and e-retailers to efficiently manage their logistics by providing a single window "shipping gateway" integrated with multiple carriers, said the Indian logistics industry is highly fragmented with processes manual in nature, leading to less operational efficiency for companies, particularly MSMEs.

Parinay Itkan added the government should take steps towards encouraging and incentivizing MSMEs to adopt digitization of their infrastructure.

Excerpts of the interview…

Kindly tell us about the entrepreneurial journey of Shyplite.

Since its inception in November, 2015, the platform MVP went live in June 2016 with a team of 6 people (Currently a 50-person team) and started gaining traction very early with hitting 1,000 registrations in less than 100 days & getting featured as One of the Top 10 most promising logistics solutions providers 2017 in SiliconIndia magazine.

We are a bootstrapped startup, registering 50% quarterly growth in terms of number of sellers and shipments processed, moving shipments of value worth more than 50 crores in Diwali 2018 season alone

We are targeting to process 1 million shipments a month by Diwali 2019.

Currently there are more than 15000 users on the Shyplite platform.

What are the major services you offer? What is your competitive edge?

Parinay Itkan: We offer centralized platform to manage and centralize all courier and logistics related requirements ranging from Documents to Bulk Movement of Goods (LTL) by Air and Surface modes Domestic and Internationally.

We stand out in terms of our product and services both from services that can be termed close to a competition. Being sellers ourselves, our product is designed from the perspective of a seller. We have received a lot of positive feedback about our platform’s easy and intuitive usability. In terms of services, it is the simple single pricing we offer, along with 10+ courier partners, automated carrier selection, automated tracking, reverse logistics and operational support to our clients.

We are also shortly launching an automated system based address verification and quality check feature which can have huge impact on e-Commerce returns.

What according to you are the major challenges the Indian logistics sector is facing at present?

Parinay Itkan: Logistics industry is highly fragmented and processes are manual in nature. Currently most of MSMEs in the country work on completely manual processes when it comes to handling of logistics which acts as a hindrance to operational efficiency and scaling. It takes a lot of time of the retailer to manually book, track and manage all these shipments with multiple courier/logistic companies.

What steps/initiatives do you expect government to take in order to address these challenges?

Parinay Itkan: Government is already moving towards digitization of all processes, MSMEs should also be encouraged and incentivized to adopt digitization of their infrastructure.

SME's are always concerned about the increasing Logistic cost, how SMEs can bring this down? Can government play any role in this regard?

Parinay Itkan: We think State has a major role to play in cost of Logistics as Infrastructure (Roads and Highways, Rail, Ports, Cargo Handling at Airports) plays a major role in the overall cost and reach of Logistics, by enabling and supporting transporters (probably by increasing their ease of doing business and avoiding unnecessary regulations) the state can really contribute to development of Logistics in the country.

What is your view on the current Business scenario for Indian SME's and what opportunities can take them ahead?

Parinay Itkan: We see the market moving increasingly towards paid and choice (speed) based shipping, slower for free and a faster paid shipping option.

Omni-channel commerce is also coming up in a big way where customers can "touch and feel" items in store for an enhanced consumer experience and get them delivered to their doorstep or order them online and pick them up later at their convenience from the stores.

One major trend for 2019 will be the drop-shipping model in e-commerce, which enables students and housewives to run an e-commerce business without having to invest in inventory and it is totally a logistics management play.

Please share your future plans with our readers.

Parinay Itkan: Shyplite is next bringing automation to the highly fragmented and unorganized offline and Omni-channel retail and B2B logistics.

Shyplite is also Pilot Testing Next Day and Same Day deliveries with our select customers and rigorously working towards enabling it for all our customer.