Making Packaging Supply Chains Lean

How I tried to digitally transform packaging procurement in the age-old and digitally lacking packaging industry ?

Project Overview

The 72$B packaging industry in India has always relied on age-old methods of procurement such as purchasing offline, managing vendors using spreadsheets, following up, and negotiating in an non scalable and inefficient way using phone calls and in-person meetings.

The market is fragmented with suppliers creating an opaque supply chain, inflated prices, and shady practices.

Our goal was to boost transparency - create scalable workflows for the enterprise to negotiate - sample and purchase packaging.

Role + Tools + Timeline

Co-founder : UI / UX + Business Development

9 Months

  • Adobe XD
  • Adobe Photoshop & Premier Pro
  • Google Forms & Docs
  • Pen and Paper

    • Context

    The startup I was previously running has crumbled down as my co-founder has left to pursue further studies.

    I was on the lookout for something interesting to work on - when my uncle who I had worked for as a freelance designer during my college days asked me to help him with sales.

    Sales meant I would be talking to people - understanding their problems and maybe an idea could sprout out from it. So I said "Yes" - my uncle was a typical supplier who was running an offline marketplace. Buying from a manufacturer and selling to clients with an added margin.

    Insights

    During my time selling packaging, I realized there was no moat to what I was doing - the sales were mostly based on relationships my uncle had created or price.

    The packaging industry is a market where the barrier to entry is quite technically low - which means anyone with minimal education and technical understanding can get into it, causing the market to be fragmented, highly price-sensitive, and opaque.

    Payments are delayed and trusting manufacturers on quality is quite difficult. Quality control is based on finding the supplier with the right infrastructure, quality compliance, location, and working capital capacity to match the client's needs.

    The use of technology in this market is quite low - the reason being manufacturers were not tech-savvy enough

    User Segments

    These were the segments I was most interested in and was as close to as possible so I researched them.

    Buyers

  • Enterprises
  • Direct to Consumer Brands

    • Sellers

  • Manufacturers

    • Mediators

  • Suppliers

    • Hypothesis

    Enterprises

  • Finding the right supplier is difficult in a fragmented Indian Market.
  • Procurement processes are not scalable.
  • Transparency is broken

    • Manufacturers

  • Delayed Payments - Leading to Working Capital Issues.
  • Low Technical Understanding - Easy to use technology.

    • The Hustle

    LinkedIn is the best tool to reach the right target audience Purchase Managers, procurement managers, and VPS

    We wanted to have an equal mix of our test audience - 20 participants.

  • Purchase Managers - 4
  • Procurement Managers - 4
  • Vice Presidents - 4
  • Manufacturers - 8

    • User Personas

    Purchase Manager

  • Santosh, a typical purchase manager, spends 6 hrs a day following up and calling vendors for negotiations.
  • His team spends ~ 3 months doing due diligence on vendors and onboarding them.
  • Finding the right supplier takes a lot of time.

    • Vice President

  • Rajesh the VP of Procurement is focused on making the entire supply chain lean - reducing headcount and improving efficiency of team.

    • Manufacturer

  • Naresh a packaging manufacturer is constantly looking to get better distribution and improve his cash flows to scale his business. Naresh also doesn't understand technology and logistics makes him loose focus

    • Focus

    Enterprises are quiet process driven and hence understanding the processes are quiet critical.
    Also, mapping this was critical to understand if a product could be built that could scale in this market.

    Processes in Packaging Procurement

    Mapping

    Mapping the flow with respect to time and convenience
    Solving for time = better cashflow and a more agile supply chain.

    Time v/s Processes

    Mapping the flow with respect to convenience
    Solving for Convenience for Enterprises = better efficiency per employee.

    Convenience v/s Processes

    Early Insights

    Our primary objective was to understand

    Enterprises

  • The procurement process was follow up heavy
  • Lacked transparency
  • Vendor Discovery and Onboarding was a time-consuming process

    • Manufacturers

  • Didn't understand tech very well
  • Wanted better distribution
  • Working Capital issues - Delayed Payments

    • Problems that came up during open-ended conversations !

  • Can technology help us store less inventory?
  • Can we have real-time inventory analysis at the vendor's end?

    • Focus

  • How might we help enterprises store less inventory? -  so they can and make their supply chain more agile with JIT.

  • How might we reduce follow-ups? - so companies can have less headcount and make negotiations scalable.

  • How might we help enterprises find the right vendor? - so they can have the right quality packaging and ensure the smooth functioning of their supply chain.

  • How might we help manufacturers with low technical understanding sell online - so they can scale their business?

  • How might we reduce payment delays? - so that the working capital needs of manufacturers can be fulfilled.

    • Prioritizing

  • Making supply Chains lean using Just-In-Time and Just-In-Case Supply Chains.
  • Localized vendors verified and organized. - reduce onboarding process
  • Reduce Payment Cycles via Online Transactions
  • Easy to use a chatbot for manufacturers to manage transactions.
  • Bidding platform to scale negotiations.
  • Suppliers, as channel partners, to reduce CAC.

    • Designing the Flow

    Put together a user flow based on what we had learned - then turned them into wireframes so that we could show it quickly to the user - get feedback and iterate on it.

    Wireframes
    Overview of User Journey

    Supply Chain Design

    Using JIT and JIC to design for a super lean and cost effective supply chain.

    Supply Chain Design

    The MVP

    Put together a user flow based on what we had learned - then turned them into wireframes so that we could show it quickly to the user - get feedback and iterate on it.

    This was put together within a day.

    Startups (DTC) brands are quiet confused about the right type of packaging they should be using - on the other hand packaging development teams at companies have their own doubts - this is the place they are solved.

    This is where you create your custom packaging quickly with custom sizes, material and design choices..

    Get Quick Quotes from factories PAN India - leveraging data at every step.

    Prototyping packaging is one of the most stressful processes and this is where we tried making it super easy.

    Always stay informed about the status of your packaging procurement and Re-order quickly.

    Validating the MVP

    You can never validate that your solution is required in the market unless people are willing to take out money from their pocket.

    Cold Emailed about 100 companies

    These were people I had not spoken to during my user research so it was a clean slate.

    The meeting consisted of me giving a product demo using the wireframes I had created and asking them to pay a token amount / pre-launch to use this software.

  • 10 Companies took meetings with me.
  • Could Close 2 for paid POC's
  • 1st one is among the top 500 FMCG Companies in India
  • 2nd the fastest growing DTC Brand in India

    • The YC Story

    Applying to YC and pre-sales demanded we have a working product demo - and prototype.

    This Product Demo and Prototype was done within a week of building and talking to users.

    Iterating

    There was a bunch of feedback I received from the guys that accepted the pilots -

  • Reverse Auctions was the major selling point
  • The side navigation bar was moved up top to improve accessibility and horizontal scrolling.
  • Chat inside the companies is rare - Approvals were always a pain in the ass for purchase managers so - Approvals were incorporated, removing chat.

    • High-Fidelity

  • Began with designing a design system
  • Designing keeping Development in Mind.

    • Login and SignUp workflows

    Creating a custom packaging requirement made simple and a 2 step process.

    Scalable Procurement Made Easy with data driven sourcing and quoting from verified vendors.

    The Packaging Development Process made manageable, scalable and Error Proof using Sampling and Approvals.

    Order and Tracking Process made less time consuming - reducing follow-ups and improving productivity.

    The Hustle

  • Running it as a service helped us stay close to the customer, get quick feedback, and understand the market inside out.
  • We also made around $33k in Revenue.
  • Got feedback from a few investors.

    • 🤫 shhhhhhuuuu......

  • Few Concepts and Metrics within this project have not been disclosed
  • The Latest Version is under development under stealth mode.

    • Learnings

  • Running a startup is not only about finding a product-market-fit; it is more of having all the dots aligned in such a way that moving fast is possible..
  • Startups are growth - I as a kid who always bootstrapped focused on profit from day 1 - Raising money gives you the bandwidth.
  • Startups are all about timing - COVID -19 showed us that..
  • I understood a lot about myself, my limitations, my boundaries, and, most importantly what I loved the most - designing for people and not for users.
  • Networked with the best VC's and Angels around the Globe.
  • Startups are about people first - products second.