Pepperfry Case Summary:

The case is about how India’s largest online furniture retailer, Pepperfry,
created a new space for itself by disrupting the furniture and home décor
market. Amidst the various challenges such as poorly developed
infrastructure in the Indian environment, lack of trust in e-commerce
systems, age-old custom of buying and selling furniture made by local
carpentary shops, etc. the company made a name for itself.
Owning a large share, of upto 60% of the furniture business in the
country, pepperfry has scene exponential growth since its birth.
However there has been concerns about its present state and its projected
future.
There are 3 major concerns, one being how to achieve profitability. Even
though a large shareholder of the market, the company was not operating
profitably. As a solution/recommendation, profitability can be achieved
by three steps- cutting costs, increasing commissions and increasing
franchising fees. The focus should be Décor & utilities (35-50% growth
potential), furniture (generating the most revenue, upto 80%), and
leveraging on house brands. New areas to focus is the rental market and
office furniture market, which seems to have a huge potential.
The 2nd concern is how could pepperfry keep innovating, strengthening
its position as an omnichannel powerhouse. The solution to this is to
focus on customer centricity, which means focusing on creating
customer value and putting customers first. Setting up stores to
experience the products in person, building trust with consumers,
delivering and exceeding customer expectations, etc.
3rd concern is about the growing presence of the competition. Pepperfry
has one of the largest logistics arms in the B2C customer delivery
service, hence leveraging on this aspect and improving it would act as a
competitive advantage against the competition. Adding to this, the
strongly established relationship with the suppliers, improvements in
operations, vast selection of products, etc. can enable them to provide
greater variety, quality and price to the consumer.