Octave & Mettle case study

In this case study you will learn:

• How Octave & Mettle enhanced customer experience & smoother operations

• How Octave & Mettle revived its opportunity of sales for returned products

• How Octave & Mettle expanded its online presence by being live on 7 top marketplaces

• How Octave & Mettle increased the number of omni-enabled stores by 10x

• How Octave & Mettle increased the user adoption of a new technology at the store staff level

• How Octave & Mettle overcame operational challenges with a new in-store solution

• How Octave & Mettle reduced “product not displayed” (PNRs) in the in-store solution

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About Octave Apparels

Octave Apparels was established in 1991 with the vision of providing fashionable casual-wear at affordable prices. It is an international name in manufacturing, retailing and exporting of readymade garments under two popular brand names— Octave & Mettle. They are known for their rapidly growing presence across marketplaces and constantly evolving to meet the latest trends and sartorial needs of its customers.

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Octave & Mettle currently retail through 300+ exclusive brand outlets and multi-brand outlets like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, Planet Fashion, and Reliance Trends. The brand also have an online presence across all major e-commerce portals—Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Nykaa Fashion, Tata CLiQ, Magicpin & Trell, along with an omni-powered brand website.

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Octave & Mettle x Fynd

Octave & Mettle started looking for omnichannel avenues for its business and joined hands with Fynd in June 2019. By December 2019, Octave & Mettle were live on Myntra on a pilot run with 4 stores.

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Challenges, Solutions & Impact

3P Marketplaces Integration

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Challenge 1: Manual inventory update

In the absence of a compatible POS system, Octave & Mettle relied on manual file transfers for inventory updates on Fynd Platform. Manual updates cause delayed inventory syncs and are often the cause of inventory mismatch, product not available (PNAs), and higher cancellations and returns.

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Solution:

Fynd, as an aggregator, facilitated Wizapp POS integration for real-time inventory sync.

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Impact:

Significant drop in PNAs leading to better customer experience & smoother operations

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Challenge 2: Higher return to origin timeline

Octave & Mettle are seasonal brands, primarily dealing in winter wear. For product returns, 3P marketplaces like Myntra take around 3 months to return to origin (RTO), i.e. Octave Apparel’s warehouse. A 3-month transit period results in a huge opportunity loss during their peak sale period.

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Solution:

Fynd, as an aggregator between Myntra and Octave Apparels raised a concern with Myntra and got it resolved with consistent coordination.

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Impact:

• RTO time reduced from 3 months to 1 month

• Opportunity loss of sales for returned winter wear revived during peak winter months

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Challenge 3: Inventory gaps

Before going live on omnichannel model on marketplaces, Octave & Mettle was selling through third-party sellers on Myntra on different models like Sale-or-Return (SOR). Fynd carried out listing gap analysis in June 2021. It revealed that the number of styles listed on marketplaces on omnichannel model was lower than the potential.

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Solution:

Fynd’s inventory analysis helped in identifying SKUs already live on marketplaces, being sold through other sellers. Fynd latched 6,543 SKUs on the omnichannel model.

Inventory gap analysis also identified products present in brand catalog but not listed on any marketplace. Such products were also made live.

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Impact:

• Live inventory increased by 12%

• 2x increase in sales the following month (June 2021 to July 2021)

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Challenge 4: Styles not cataloged

Product listing on marketplaces was low since many products were not cataloged at all, or were only cataloged for some marketplaces and not the others.

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Solution:

Fynd offered services to assist in cataloging of non-cataloged products and one-click transformation service for transforming catalog on different marketplaces.

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Impact:

20% increase in live styles by Dec 2021 before peak season

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Challenge 5: Going live on multiple marketplaces

Before Fynd, Octave’s ecommerce presence was limited to just Myntra, that too on SOR model from warehouse. Fewer sales channels restrict sales opportunities.

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Solution:

Octave & Mettle went live on Myntra on omnichannel model with Fynd as an aggregator. The spree to go live on maximum ecommerce platforms continued. Fynd offered consistent support in onboarding, going live and growing omnichannel business on these platforms, from Myntra being the first to Magicpin being the latest.

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Impact:

• Octave Apparels is now live on 7 top marketplaces

• Octave Apparels became one of the first brands to go live on hyperlocal deliveries in the fashion segment by Magicpin and social selling platform Trell.

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Challenge 6: Fewer no. of stores integrated

Octave & Mettle went live on Myntra’s Pure Play Marketplace model (Myntra PPMP) in December 2019. Initially, only four Ludhiana-based stores were integrated for ecommerce fulfillment. Brands often remain skeptical while venturing into a new business model and start with a small number of stores. However, the success of the omnichannel model lies in integrating the maximum number of stores.

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Solution:

Performance of the pilot run aligned with growth projections by Fynd and superseded the brand’s expectations. Octave & Mettle confidently went ahead and integrated 10 more stores, also expanding geographically to stores in Mumbai. Eventually Octave & Mettle integrated 92% of its company-owned company-operated (COCO) stores on marketplaces.

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Impact:

Number of omni-enabled stores increased by 10x

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Octave & Mettle x Fynd Store

Octave started implementing Fynd Store in its store in June 2019. There has been a steady increase in the additional store sales from Fynd Store since then that can be seen in the following chart:

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Challenge 1: Low adoption level in stores

One of the biggest challenges in rolling out Fynd Store with Octave & Mettle stores was poor user-adoption. Some of the reasons identified for this were:

• Apprehension & lack of trust among the store staff

• Frequent changes in store teams & structure

• Lack of communication within the brand team

• Store staff’s unawareness of Fynd Store features & benefits, not just the brand but also for the store staff

• Misconceptions on sale allocations

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Solution:

A designated Customer Success Manager (CSM) started regular visits to each store to drill deeper into the problems faced by the store staff.

Following initiatives by the CSM significantly contributed in gaining trust of the store staff and also won faith of the management:

• Regular staff training & awareness

• Running campaigns for higher engagement

• Constant motivation on Whatsapp group

• Operational assistance when needed

• Bridging gap between Store Managers & store staff

• Presenting problem statements to higher management and aligning them on joint calls for intervention

• Enabling store staff in building trust in Fynd Store technology and team support

• Establishing an understanding on the ROI while using Fynd Store

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Impact:

• No manual inter store transfers

• Increase in app activity

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Challenge 2: Low in-store walk-ins

Other than low walk-ins during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Fynd Store CSMs found few other cases of low app activity during their store-to-store visits. For example, a store could have low app activity/low footfall due to their location by the highway.

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Solution:

CSMs introduced and pushed the store staff to use distance selling on the Fynd Store app.

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Impact:

34% contribution to additional store sales from distance selling in July 2022

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Challenge 3: Operational challenges

One of the reasons that the store staff was reluctant to use Fynd Store was operational constraints. Instead of raising concerns with the team, the store staff simply stopped using the app.

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Solution:

The CSM understood the apprehensions of the store team and conducted frequent sessions to assist them with their operational challenges. Fynd Store took the following initiatives to set an example, demonstrate impact & user friendliness, and resolve practical concerns of the store staff:

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1) The CSM created collections based on the demography, footfall, trends and customer demand. CSM shared these customized collections with the store team and inspired them to forward it to customers.

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2) The CSM extended operational assistance in executing bundle offers & coupon codes

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‍Impact:

‍Collectively all initiatives from the CSM led to y-o-y growth in additional store sales from Fynd Store.

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Challenge 4: Only Store Managers were placing orders

Initially, management had security concerns around data leakage if the store staff was given the right to directly access Fynd Store. Hence, the store team was entirely dependent on the Store Managers to place orders on Fynd Store. Store staff lost sales opportunities they individually had on Fynd Store.

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Solution:

Fynd Store conducted live demo sessions with the management to showcase admin authorities on Fynd Store through team allocation feature. All data breaches were foolproof by allocating appropriate rights to the team. Not only data privacy was ensured, store staff had the freedom to place orders on Fynd Store on their mobile devices through their own logins.

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Even after the management authorized the store staff, many of them remained unaware, and the practice for Store Managers to place orders continued. That’s when CSMs went store to store and educated and encouraged the staff to place orders themselves.

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Impact:

No. of ordering devices increased from 1 to 4 in each store

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Challenge 5: Product not reflecting (PNRs) on app

Situation:

Cataloging issues caused higher PNR instances

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Solution:

Assistance in cataloging by Fynd

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Impact:

PNR reduced to <5%

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Octave & Mettle x Fynd Brand Website Solution

Other than marketplaces integration and in-store solution by Fynd, Octave also runs its omnichannel brand website powered by Fynd. The brand website is build on one of Fynd’s third-party website development partner, GreenHonchos and uses Fynd Platform for order assigning & inventory management. Octave & Mettle website fulfills orders from 40+ omni-enabled Octave & Mettle COCO stores.

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Special insight for retail brands

Octave— Busting myths by embracing a no-discounts strategy on 3P marketplaces

Octave & Mettle prefer a parity in its online and offline prices. It runs in-store discounts & promotional offers on merchandise, based on seasonal cycles. Being a primary player in the winter wear segment, Octave & Mettle store’s sales period & styles-in-focus do not coincide with 3P marketplaces’ major sale events. As a result, Octave & Mettle have been selling products on marketplaces at un-discounted prices, even during the big sale events like EOSS on Myntra.

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The outcome has become a big mythbuster. Octave & Mettle became a leading example to show that brands can perform well in sale events even at full prices.

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