“StoreHippo, a turnkey e-commerce solutions with 60+ payment gateways”- Mr. Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

StoreHippo is an enterprise-grade SaaS-based e-commerce platform that offers turnkey e-commerce solutions to B2B, B2C businesses of all sizes. The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) platform enables high-volume enterprise businesses to go to market in a fraction of time as compared to legacy software. Launched in 2014, StoreHippo has enterprise customers in 20+ countries and 35+ business verticals.

StoreHippo is the pioneer in mobile commerce and the first SaaS eCommerce platform to adapt a headless web app architecture. It is designed to give brands a strong Omnichannel presence, better user experience, and higher sale conversions across digital touchpoints.

StoreHippo’s highly flexible service-oriented architecture, powered by AI and automation, gives businesses the ability to implement diverse B2B, B2C, and B2B2C business models in no time.

To know more about the company and its strategies, we had an interaction with Mr. Rajiv Kumar Aggarwal, the co-founder, and CEO of the SaaS Ecommerce Platform StoreHippo.

Mr. Kumar is an industry veteran and highly skilled technologist with 20+ years of strong experience in Internet Technologies and E-Commerce. He is a results-oriented person with a remarkable capacity for innovation that has prompted path-breaking changes in the E-commerce software industry. Rajiv founded StoreHippo in 2014 with the vision to build a global SaaS product based out of India. With customers in 20+ countries and 35+ business verticals, StoreHippo is now a global brand and industry leader in B2B and B2C eCommerce.

Prior to founding StoreHippo, Rajiv worked as CEO of Manusis Technologies and was instrumental in several technology products including GDGT, ClassPass, DesignByHumans, RCRDLBL. During his career, Rajiv has held technology leadership roles in multiple global technology companies including Oracle, E*Trade, STMicroelectronics, HCL to name a few.

In a recent email interaction with Rajiv kumar, we got to know more about the e-commerce industry and the trends, here is a glimpse of that…

 

Which are the industries leading to SaaS adoption in India and what are the new industries to watch out for in 2021?

The adoption of SaaS has gained massive prominence in the recent past. A hint of SaaS is now visible in almost every industry ranging from FMCG to grocery and from Cement to Paints. With this ever-evolving demand and adoption of SaaS, a wide variety of industries are in the queue to actively adopt the technology. Industries including Agri-tech, Ed-Tech, Health-Tech along with Automobiles and spare parts and building materials have started demonstrating the implementation of SaaS to a great extent which is likely to grow manifold from here on in the coming years.

 

What are the top trends driving the growth of SaaS adoption?

Well, if we talk about the upcoming trends in the world of SaaS, the list would be a long one. However few of the most prominent trends that are fueling the adoption of SaaS in the current times include:

• Greater flexibility and fully integrated solutions to build out of box solutions for large brands
• Mobile optimization and solutions are driven by the mobile-first principle
• Better BI(business intelligence) for strategic planning and marketing
• API driven solutions and extreme personalization
• Vertical SaaS to offer customizable, cost-effective, industry-specific solutions
• White Label SaaS for brands

 

Is StoreHippo seeing an increase in high-growth, early-stage SaaS companies in India? What do you think is contributing to the expanding number of SaaS companies in India?

The rate at which early-stage SaaS companies are growing in India has been unprecedented. For us too, the numbers have been great. The number of inquiries on our platform increased by 60-70% between March and July.

The reasons significantly contributing towards the expanding numbers of SaaS companies in the country are multiple. The eagerness to go digital has majorly contributed to the growth of SaaS companies offering solutions to run online business functions. Furthermore, the availability of a conducive ecosystem for offering solutions to SMBs as well as enterprises is another factor boosting the growth of SaaS companies in India.

 

How Hyperlocal eCommerce is contributing towards providing a real in-store shopping experience to the customers?

The customer psyche with reference to buying products and services has undergone a major transition across the globe and especially in India. Earlier shopping from the physical stores was the only method of purchasing. Over the years, online shopping is increasingly preferred by consumers of all age groups. However, despite the variety and convenience offered by online shopping, consumers still have a few concern areas hampering the user experience.

In such cases when e-commerce seems to fade away, the hyperlocal markets come into the scenario. They perfectly combine the convenience of online shopping along with the comfort and reliability of the physical stores, thereby delivering the best of both worlds to the consumers.

Hyperlocal e-commerce tackles all the issues that e-commerce platforms usually face including logistics, inventory management, transactions, delivery, and communication with the customers. Consumers can surf through the hyperlocal marketplaces offering a variety of products from multiple merchants and purchase via various modes of payment at convenient pricing while at the same time being assured of swift doorstep delivery.

Just the way, hyperlocal eCommerce is making it easy for customers to buy daily need items such as grocery, fruits, and vegetables, and much more; the adoption of hyperlocal in Health-Tech, Edutech, Service aggregators, etc. is also making it easier for customers to avail a variety of services right from the comfort of their homes.

 

How D2C are adapting to the new generation of Ecommerce?

India’s e-commerce industry is on the path of exponential growth with D2C selling expected to be the next big thing in the market. With competition intensifying every passing day and brands coming up with more advanced options, it is important for brands to fortify their D2C supply chain with logistics technology to fulfill dynamic customer expectations.

D2C e-commerce is an emerging Omni-channel trend among retailers across categories including apparel, electronics, FMCG, furniture, grocery, and lifestyle goods to name a few. These days, an increasing number of Indian retail brands are adopting the D2C strategy to sell and deliver merchandise directly to consumers without depending on any third party which is indeed helping them establish a strong presence in the industry.

Furthermore, with plug-and-play eCommerce solutions like ours, adopting D2C and reaching customers across various channels has become easier for the brands. Even with the new generation of multi-channel eCommerce, brands can easily focus on catering to the specific needs of their customers.

In simpler terms, with the right content and marketing and a good e-commerce solution, brands can keep their customers loyal and reach new markets which were earlier a little difficult to tap.

 

What are your views on the changing Social commerce landscape in India?

Social commerce has grown massively in popularity in the last couple of years. With the arrival of COVID-19 not only eCommerce got a push but social commerce also found a fan base because of a host of benefits.

The key factor accelerating the growth of social commerce is the vast social media user base in India and our rising appetite for e-commerce. The use of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp provide the required fuel to the whole process of social commerce.

However, in my opinion, though e-commerce will be the force to reckon with, social commerce which is gaining rapid momentum and acceptance from the customers will be an integral tool for brands to engage with customers, gain their trust and keep them loyal, thereby amplifying their shopping experience.

 

Shed some light on how StoreHippo offers multiple choices through various payment options and helps in implementing customized checkouts? 

StoreHippo offers 60+ integrated domestic and international payment gateways for its clients. Along with these StoreHippo also covers a full spectrum of agile payment methods which include Apple Pay, subscription-based payments, pay-later options, marketplace payments, UPI, wallets, offline payments, COD, etc. Our clients can easily customize their checkout by using a combination of these payment methods to offer frictionless payment options to their customers. We also offer full support for multi-currency and location-based payment method selection.