Have you wondered why generally we do not find option of pick up from multiple Warehouse or Pick up locations in Indian Online Marketplace?
Though it seems to be a simple feature to be implemented which could be useful for sellers but there seems to be some constraints while launching such a cool feature. Many sellers would be interested in selling different inventory product items from different locations.
In Indian online marketplace scenario, after implementation of GST, sellers would have multiple locations intra-state or inter-state to do the business. Some product items would be present in a single location and others at multiple locations. Let’s call this required feature as MPUL – Multiple Pick Up Location. There could be several case possible from Seller’s perspective.
Pre-Order defining of Pickup location
Assuming the scenario where multiple locations are in same State with 1 Item at 1 Location only.
A seller has multiple locations say 3 in a state. S/he wants to sell from these locations with different items at different locations. While listing an item for Selling on Webpany on seller panel there could be option for Item pickup location. There doesn’t seem to be an issue to implement this feature. Sellers’ would be required to register for additional place of business.
Post-Order defining of Pickup location
For a Online Marketplace (let’s call it Webpany – Web Company) what are the obstacles to implement this feature.
Intra-State Pickups
If seller wants to select the pickup location after s/he receives an order i.e. while scheduling pickups then it would affect webpany product pricing on some portals. Some webpanies work based on same shipping cost across regions and other divide it into multiple tiers (generally 3 – local, regional, national). In case of the latter such webpanies display product pricing + shipping cost on product detail page. In case of same state pickup locations shipping cost will vary between local and regional (national would remain same). It doesn’t seem to be possible for webpany to implement this. But if the shipping cost for local and regional are same then this feature could be implement for intra-state pickups.
In case when an item is present at multiple location in same State then the feature is very useful i.e. defining pickup location while pickup scheduling. A seller would have option to schedule pickup from desired location and it is helpful in cases when there is low or no inventory of an item at certain location.
This feature could be implemented where Seller would be required to opt in for merging of Local and Regional shipping charges.
Inter-State Pickups
In inter state pickups, seller needs to have multiple GST registrations as per law. There is more compliance to be done. Webpanies have to enable a feature where Seller can register multiple GST on their portal. Make shipping cost (drop ship) same for all tiers i.e. local, regional and national.