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It was the 25^th wedding anniversary of Shekhar’s parents on March 31, 2021 but he was away from them in Bengaluru as the COVID pandemic-induced lockdown did not permit him to visit them in Dehradun. But he decided to surprise them with their favourite cake and flowers at midnight. His parents were delighted at his gesture and Shekhar thanked the existence of online gifting that gave him the opportunity to showcase his love and affection for his parents despite his absence.

It is this sentimental connection that Sumit Chhabra, the founder of MyFlowerTree.com, an online gifting portal, which operates under the Progressive Commerce umbrella, was looking to tap when he began his venture back in 2009. Initially, Sumit began with delivering fresh flowers within New Delhi. “The mission was to deliver a delightful experience to our customers. Our values haven’t changed since those days, we’re still on our way to make it a highly valuable and reliable brand. We love our customers who trust us with their important occasions. We take this responsibility very seriously,” he said.

Starting off with five people dispatching about 20 orders a day, MyFlowerTree today delivers over 1,200 orders daily. Beginning with a network of 20 Indian cities, the online gifting portal currently serves across 408 cities in the country and 28 international locations. Apart from flowers, the online gifting portal has expanded its product portfolio to fresh fruits, chocolates and cakes, dry fruits, sweets, and designer gifts.

Optimising the last mile

When it comes to online gifting, last mile logistics represents one of the biggest roadblocks for e-commerce portals. For instance, if a customer has ordered a gift for someone whose birthday falls on the next day, he/she would expect the gift to arrive the day of the celebration. In such cases, if the order is not delivered on time and on the day of celebration, the essence of gifting is lost. Therefore, sound logistics and real-time visibility into its end-to-end order fulfillment process tops their priority list. And logistics companies play a vital role in the planning and operational execution of transit to keep the cogs of the wheel going.

Weighing in on these challenges and after carefully considering different parameters, MyFlowerTree decided to opt for Borzo – a logistics company that promises to empower businesses and customers alike by providing same-day intra-city delivery platform. Previously known as WeFast, Borzo uses highly advanced algorithms to enable affordable, fast, and precise delivery for the mass market. These algorithms optimise numerous parallel deliveries by taking factors like geographical routes, packages’ content, and couriers into account to ensure the feasibility of same-day deliveries. What’s more, Borzo facilitates same-day delivery across any route, transport, weight, or size at a competitive price.

“Our overall experience with Borzo has been excellent. Deliveries have been timely and there has been a marked uptick in our orders. Before the Borzo partnership, we had to continuously follow-up with our delivery boys to check on the delivery status. But now, the entire process has become hassle-free and we are focussed on our core business rather than having to worry about the last mile delivery hurdles,” said Akshat Goswami, Assistant Manager – Operations, MyFlowerTree.

Jumping into real-time

Among the various features that Akshat found appealing were Borzo’s real-time chat support and easy availability of delivery partners especially for orders, which require to be delivered within a 60-minute timeframe.

“Especially during special occasions like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day etc, we have noticed almost a 60-70 percent decrease in delivery times for same-day deliveries, which is very encouraging. Furthermore, when it comes to multiple deliveries, our delivery costs have reduced by upto 15 percent. The user experience of our customers has also improved greatly post our partnership with Borzo,” Akshat added. He further revealed that over the next couple of months, they intend to scale up their partnership further with Borzo.

Speaking of the partnership with MyFlowerTree, Devesh Gangal, Country Marketing Manager, Borzo said, “Due to higher demand, MyFlowerTree was facing challenges in covering the entire Delhi region due to low bandwidth. Therefore, they were looking for a delivery partner who could assist with the on-demand deliveries from their customers. Borzo helped them grow their business through our revolutionised tech platform and solving their issues/concerns on a real-time basis. 95 percent of all their orders are getting assigned within two minutes of order creation and more than 70 percent of pickups are happening within 20 minutes.”

The long-term growth prospects for India’s online gifting market remains robust. By 2024, the country is likely to become one of the major contributors to the global gift retailing market. Going ahead, MyFlowerTree plans to harness not only these opportunities but also work towards consistent expansion in order to capture the increasing market interest. In 2019, it announced a strategic plan that includes the launch of more than 100 outlets with a revenue target of Rs 100 crore within the next three years. And with a logistics partner like Borzo on board, MyFlowerTree can be rest assured of its last mile worries.