Croma introduces cash on delivery
Croma introduces cash on delivery

After successful expansion into Zip stores and kiosks, Tata Croma, one of the nation's first large format specialist retail chains for consumer electronics and durables has also started offering Cash on Delivery (CoD) service on their website, www.cromaretail.com. Ajit Joshi, MD & CEO, Infiniti Retail Limited

What was the philosophy behind starting the operation of CoD?

CoD model was introduced in Croma in sync with our philosophy- “We help you buy”. Needless to mention the model changed the dynamics of the eCommerce industry; helping online stores penetrate far and deep to areas never thought of. It has empowered the customer which has in turn led to the growth of the industry. It also helps customers without credit cards, to shop on our portal. A key initiative to keep above competition is strict TATs (Turnaround Time) to ensure timely deliveries and satisfied customers. Our continued efforts for timely delivery help us enjoy low return rates and earn customer loyalty.

Does one need to register in order to place orders on Croma?

No, Croma does not place any condition for registration before placing an order. It is up to the customer if he/she wants to register. Otherwise the user can proceed to place an order with “Guest Checkout” by just entering their valid email ID. It is a requisite since the order confirmation is delivered to that ID.  However, in multiple orders, each product can be limited to only five units per order. This is because we don’t want some of our bestsellers, offered at some attractive prices, to be bought and resold by small dealers.

Ever since the introduction of COD, our daily transactions have grown tremendously and it contributes a healthy percentage of our daily transactions. However, the challenges accrue to returns and faster recovery of payments from third party logistic providers, who deliver our products on COD. To begin with we have tightened our internal processes before the COD order is dispatched, whereby we authenticate how genuine is the order and go ahead with the processing only when it is validated. Additionally, we have tightened the SLAs with our 3rd party logistics (3PLs) for faster remittances and kept incentives for 3PL to reduce returns.

What steps have you taken to ensure timely delivery?

We have integrated our eCommerce platform with six warehouses across the country and the order gets allocated to the nearest warehouse on basis of inventory check and delivery Pin Code. Also our dispatch TAT’s are 24 hours from the warehouse. We have also signed extremely stringent SLAs with 3PLs to ensure timely deliveries and this is rigorously monitored internally as key business metric.

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