Leading India’s one and only end-to-end e-commerce service organization, here’s PEAKLIFE in conversation with CEO and Co-Founder Mr. Ankur Dayal.
India’s only end-to-end E-commerce Service Provider, Primarc Pecan Retail Pvt Ltd. offers E-Commerce Business Solutions across geographies and brands to increase the scope of their online business. E-commerce management services, fulfillment solutions, and digital marketing are just some of the factors the company tends to.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the organization is the brainchild of Ankur Dayal, CEO, and Co-Founder of the brand. With years of experience in the space of e-retail, banking, and insurance, the young leader believes in the upcoming growth and innovation of e-commerce.
In conversation with Ankur, here’s PEAKLIFE exploring the brand’s journey, his key vision, and more:
1.) Starting off, how did you foray into the e-commerce segment? What was your inspiration?
I come from a background of channel sales and spent nearly 20 years in that field, across multiple businesses and different industry domains. After having to explore most of what was there in this sphere, it made me eager to try something new that would challenge me and test my limits in an entirely new way. That’s when a conversation with Rohit, who co-founded Primarc Pecan and who also happens to be my childhood friend, prompted me to take a closer look at e-commerce. E-commerce back then was a budding segment and I was excited and inspired both to thoroughly understand this sector and perceive how my experience can make a difference.
2.) What is your vision for Primarc Pecan?
Primarc for me is a place where we innovate; we make sure that we customize a lot of our offerings as per client needs. We are flexible, hungry, and yet always rooted within our values of integrity and being honest about what we bring to the table. Our long-term vision is to integrate all online solutions under one roof; with our experience, expertise, together with the latest technology. Such that our clients can get end-to-end solutions for all their online requirements at one place.
3.) What are some challenges you’re faced with on a daily basis?
E-commerce is a segment that never sleeps, it’s active 24*7, every day of the year. It requires people on the backend to be on their toes at all times. Trends are dynamic, there are updates and requirements from multiple portals coming in at once, and with the digital boom, you have to keep your eye on the ball at all times. The biggest operational challenge, however, was the one we faced during the pandemic. There was a shortage of manpower, lockdowns posed problems with deliveries — and yet orders had to be processed efficiently. Keeping the team motivated in such a time was also a challenge, one that we had to overcome early on to ensure smooth, timely functioning.
4.) Could you tell us a bit about your expansion plans? Are you planning to go global in the near future or is it only the Indian demography you’re tending to?
I believe we have only scratched the surface yet and there is a lot more to be done in terms of the quantum of work and innovation that can be undertaken in this field. We plan on staying local and serving the Indian demographic, at least in the foreseeable future, looking at the vast scope here itself. We intend to spend time and resources developing analytical and operational tools that are technology-driven and more automated to ensure the highest level of efficiency for our clients. We also want to increase efficiency in marketing and help our clients increase their visibility online. Our thrust also will be on propagating the D2C model of doing business, here in India. We can help clients realise the vast potential of D2C; not only by helping them bring about operational efficiency on their websites: but also, by introducing tools for optimization, helping them expand their market size, working on customer retention, and ensuring stickiness and conversion ratios.
5.) With e-commerce reigning at the top today, what are some digital trends you see emerging in the coming future?
Direct to customer – both via website and applications. The model’s popularity has surged, especially post the pandemic. Consumers are looking for more information about products when making purchase decisions. They want to make sure they can depend on the brand they buy from. With offline sales seeing a downward trend, D2C can potentially be the channel that emerges on top and can soon be separated from marketplaces as a completely different vertical. We see Omnichannel retail emerging as the most prominent offshoot with major brands consolidating their online and offline channels to form synergies.
6.) How have you been sustaining through the pandemic?
We looked at the pandemic as an opportunity to help brand partners grow their businesses online. We helped them build categories and organize their business. We also assisted in sustaining and growing revenues on marketplaces as well as on their D2C websites: to help them compensate in some ways for the losses they faced offline. Our digital marketing solutions have helped the brands increase focus and visibility via their campaigns by increasing efficiency in their spends. The pandemic in fact has been instrumental in ushering in more people towards shopping online and e-Commerce definitely received more fillip as a result and helped us grow.
7.) Your success mantra?
Regardless of circumstances, there is no way around hard work. Not just hard work, consistent hard work is what yields steady results and that is what takes you places. Success is realising there is so much more to be accomplished and to be explored – it is the never-dying hunger to learn more and innovate.
8.) Lastly, any word of advice for budding aspirants venturing in the same sphere as you?
The playground is huge and it’s only expanding with time, there is no limit to how much potential it holds for players willing to constantly innovate and evolve, who bring about change – so for us, it is more the merrier.
