Company overview

‘Shwapno’ is one of the most popular super shop in our country. Shwapno is operated by
ACI logistics limited. They have a very large number of outlets in different parts of our
country. They have more than 79 outlets and about 700 employees all around the country.
Launched in 2008, Shwapno currently serves more than 32,000 customers a day, offering
everything from fresh produce to daily household goods and broader lifestyle categories.
Shwapno uses part of the facility as a grocery store and part of the facility as an Online
Grocery Super Shop. Customers can walk into the store or order online. Shwapno as an e-
commerce has been around since April 2017. During the pre-pandemic days, it was quite
easy to walk to a Shwapno outlet nearby and buy whatever grocery was needed.
However, the same cannot be said for now. As we are now suggested to stay indoors and
avoid crowds for our own safety, Shwapno has adapted to the situation as well to keep
providing all things necessary to make for a comfortable lockdown. Even the global
pandemic which has put the entire world on hold has not been able to slow down the
efficient service and availability of fresh products Shwapno has to offer. Although the
online shopping platform has recently become more preferred due to the pandemic, the
main incentive behind shwapno.com was to give customers easier and safer ways to
access what they needed to purchase. It eliminates the requirement of standing in long
queues and bumping into people blocking the aisles, as one can easily browse through the
wide range of products at one go and as many times as necessary. Catering to the
situation at hand, shwapno.com has begun home deliveries in more areas than before,
expanding its reach all the way to Sylhet and Chattogram. Starting from everyday staples
like rice and oil, fish and meat, vegetables, snacks and packaged goods to various
clothing items and toys to stationery and electronic equipment, the online platform is a
mirror reflection of the physical outlets. The customers have access to a range of daily
essentials, household necessities, frozen and fresh food all being delivered straight to
their doorstep. Although products might vary location to location, there is always
something in stock to satisfy any requirement.

Dristribution netwoek shwapno super shop follows performance characteristics of Retail

Storage with Customer Pickup. In this dristribution system inventory is stored locally
at shwapno retail stores. Customers either walk into the retail store or place an order
online or on the phone, and pick it up at the shwapno retail store. It is best suited for fast-
moving items or items for which customer’s value rapid response.
The Retail Storage with Customer Pickup network is as shown in Figure:

Manufacturers Manufacturers
Manufacturers Manufacturers

Distributor Distributor
warehouse warehouse

Retailer Retailer Retailer

Consumers
Performance Characteristics of retail storage at consumer pickup sites

Cost factor Performance

Inventory Retail storage increases inventory costs because of lack of

aggregation. For very fast moving items, however, there is marginal
increase in inventory even with retail storage. Shwapno keeps its
inventory of fast moving items at retail outlet, while slow moving
items are stocked at a central warehouse.

Transportation For retail storage with customer pickup transportation cost will be
lowest because inexpensive models of transportation can be used to
replenish product at retail store. Consumer’s transportation will also
be lowest because they can purchase product from closest shwapno
outlet or orders online.

Facilities & For retail storage with customer pickup facility cost will be highest
handing because many local facilities are required. The increase in handling
cost at the pickup site Can be significant for online and phone orders.

Information For retail storage with customer pickup information cost will be
lower. A minimal information infrastructure is needed if customers
walk into the store and place Their order. For online orders, however,
a significant information infrastructure is needed to provide visibility
of the order until the customer picks it up.

Service Factor Performance

Response time Shwapno provide immediate service as the customer walks into
the stores to purchase product and shwapno also provide online
sales service that deliver product to the customer much faster.
Product variety Product variety stored locally will be lower than other options. One
reason for lower variety can also be that shwapno sales many kind
of product from different companies. It is more expensive for
shwapno to keep same categories product from different companies
(mainly slow moving products). So it is not possible for them to
keep all same categories products. They only keep fast moving
product.

Product In retail storage with customer pickup it is more expensive than all
availability other options to provide a high level of product availability.

Customer For retail storage with customer pickup customer experience

depends whether the customer likes to shop. For example in this
experience
pandemic situation customer experience are positive because
shwapno provide very fast home delivery for online orders.
Although the online shopping platform has recently become more
preferred due to the pandemic, the main incentive behind
shwapno.com was to give customers easier and safer ways to access
what they needed to purchase.

Time to market Time to market will be highest for retail storage with customer
pickup because the products must penetrate through the entire
supply chain before its reach the end customer.

Order visibility Order visibility is extremely important for customer pickups where
orders are placed online or on the phone but Trivial for in store
orders.

Returnability For retail storage with customer pickup returnability is easier than
other options. Returns can be handled at the pickup site. Overall,
returnability is Fairly good using this option