Tuesday, August 23, 2016 4:38PM IST (11:08AM GMT)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India/PRnewswire: Pepperfry.com, India’s No.1 Furniture and Home marketplace is using a leading edge heuristic algorithm for logistics and supply chain management.
In the last few years Pepperfry has not only filled the supply gap for great designs but has also resolved the timely delivery challenge faced by consumers. Gone are the days when Indians used to spend weeks to get furniture delivered to their homes. Even when furniture started selling online a few years ago it solved the problem of “Variety” but delivery timelines continued to remain a challenge. Look today, Pepperfry delivers furniture to Mumbai in 24 hours, NCR region in 6 days, Bangalore in 7 days even though it operates on marketplace model. In fact, delivery timeline for large items has evolved to be a unique proposition of Pepperfry.
And behind these not so seen earlier delivery timeline lies a complex algorithm. The algorithm works on a self-learning model and consistently seeks areas for further improvement. So what goes inside the algorithm that ensures that Pepperfry delivers furniture to its customers in the best timeline possible? Says Ashish Shah, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer – “It is an optimization engine that works on pin code level and takes into consideration multiple factors including current orders in process, vehicle utilization, product volume, kilometers run per vehicle, absenteeism of manpower and frequency and type of vehicle utilized etc. The algorithm is evolving as we continue to improve the inflection point at which timeline and SLA are in right balance.” Continues Ashish Shah, “Consider the case of Bangalore. It used to take 15 days for us to deliver a Furniture 6 months ago. As we fed data points to the algorithm it statistically brought out areas for enhancing efficiencies. Today 15 days has been cut down to 7 days. And all this has been done without any impact on customer promised timeline; deliveries within SLA continues to be more than 98%.” The algorithm also takes into account recency effect which implies positive correlation of timeline improvement with more recursions.
Pepperfry believes strength of this algorithm is in operating its own logistics network, arguably the largest in India in terms of large item delivery. Says Ashish Shah, “As we control end to end network, we have access to data points in all phases through which a furniture travels. This vast set of data ensures accuracy in statistical modeling. Further, our own infrastructure also helps us achieve the lowest distribution cost and damage rates in the industry.”
So, when you place an order next on Pepperfry.com, keep in mind that there is an algorithm which is determined to deliver furniture to you in the fastest time possible. And that your order may be another data point for the algorithm to improve timeline further in your pin code.
An Algorithm Behind Pepperfry’s Happy Furniture to Your Door Step
