13
de Desembre
de
2016 - 12:48
Act.
14
de Desembre
de
2016 - 17:24
"The work in startups is neverending. We are now closing a large investment round, and therefore negotiating with funds, but at the same time we are maintaining focus on the product and the key clients and also working with small institutions…," says Javier Juncadella, CEO of Nektria, on picking up the phone for his interview with VIA Empresa. As he says, the company is undergoing a process of full growth. The business model is working for them and proof of that is that they will soon seal a deal with a large supermarket chain –the name of which they are unwilling to reveal- that will allow them to double their staff to 20 employees and multiply the current turnover of 100,000 euros by nine times.
Nektria was initially devoted to mobility in sharing businesses such as the defunct Motit, about which Juncadella says, "we realised that it was a very immature sector, and needs a few more years, as there are a lot of barriers that need to be resolved. It is what made us consider a shift to other sectors, as many other companies do."
Thus in September 2014, Juncadella's joining the board of the startup -set up by David Costa, Oriol Serra, Miguel Valls and Víctor Tejero- changed the model. "I challenged the founders and the rest of the investors to learn how we could take advantage of all these good ideas and apply them to mobility where there is a genuine lack of coverage and a market that is sufficiently developed, that of goods," says the executive.
Transporting goods on time
Nektria's work is easy to summarise: with the RECShipping solution they make it possible for the digital shopper to decide when and where they want to receive their order, a major problem for ecommerce businesses, who see that a lot of consumers abandon their shopping carts when they are unable to decide when the delivery should take place. "One out of three home deliveries are unsuccessful at the first try. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the delivery of ecommerce orders, which means they lose a large part of the advantages of shopping online," Juncadella claims.
With this solution the company is trying to resolve the problematic situation, using a grid with different time slots that is integrated into the purchasing process to which they also add a variable pricing layer. Juncadella explains: "You see different time slots and different prices because not all the slots are the same, as we divide the cost and difficulty of the delivery between different users and to the extent that they accept these proposed discounts, they are contributing to creating logical efficiencies and getting a discount with the purchase." The firm takes between 25, 50 and 75 cents for each delivery and the shop recovers this by charging a small premium on the price for consumers who choose the day and time of delivery.
Currently, users of online shops like Fashiop, Costalamel or Ulabox, have had the inefficiency of deliveries reduced by 2%, while ensuring the commitment to delivery and time of their logistical operators, normally the Catalan companies, Ara Vinc or Jets. At the same time, as they do in Madrid, they work with Tipsa because "we need operators with a wider reach, given that we are working with operators in Madrid and Barcelona, as we estimate that 70% of online purchases are in these two large cities."
The difficulty in guaranteeing a delivery time as close as possible to the moment of purchase is one of the great challenges facing the sector and, with Amazon dominating the market, it has motivated El Corte Inglés, among others, to make improvements. "For them there is a focus based on the time that they suggest, but we turn that around and let the user choose when they want it to be," insists Juncadella, who believes that the key is in the management of the stock, not so much the transport of the order. "Those who promise to deliver within two hours make me smile because sometimes they buy t-shirts in China and, therefore, will find it difficult to deliver in two hours. As I say it is not so much a logistical challenge as one of stock, of where your stock is located," he points out.
Growth and recognition
Yet their proposal also works offline, as shown with Casas, the Catalan shoeshop company. In its shops, the buyer can decide to take those boots they have just bought with them or, if they prefer, continue shopping and let a transport firm take the product to their houses. When? When they decide.
Right now, as they conclude the process of consolidating the business project, valued at six million euros, they are negotiating a new investment round with different funds with which they hope to raise two million euros to scale up a model that "has already shown itself to be efficient and profitable," he points out. They also hope to seal agreements with prominent Spanish and European supermarkets that could bring them the management of more than 1,000 deliveries.
And all this is happening at a key time, as in October Nektria won the 5 min pitch EGI SAAS competition of the Crossborder Club eCommerce, which recognised Nektria and RECShipping as the most innovative Software as a Service (SAAS) solution for eCommerce in Europe in 2016. It is an award to add to the Premi Fòrum d'Inversió, organised by Acció, which they won in July for the project with the most potential for innovation and internationalisation.
Nektria was initially devoted to mobility in sharing businesses such as the defunct Motit, about which Juncadella says, "we realised that it was a very immature sector, and needs a few more years, as there are a lot of barriers that need to be resolved. It is what made us consider a shift to other sectors, as many other companies do."
Thus in September 2014, Juncadella's joining the board of the startup -set up by David Costa, Oriol Serra, Miguel Valls and Víctor Tejero- changed the model. "I challenged the founders and the rest of the investors to learn how we could take advantage of all these good ideas and apply them to mobility where there is a genuine lack of coverage and a market that is sufficiently developed, that of goods," says the executive.
Transporting goods on time
Nektria's work is easy to summarise: with the RECShipping solution they make it possible for the digital shopper to decide when and where they want to receive their order, a major problem for ecommerce businesses, who see that a lot of consumers abandon their shopping carts when they are unable to decide when the delivery should take place. "One out of three home deliveries are unsuccessful at the first try. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the delivery of ecommerce orders, which means they lose a large part of the advantages of shopping online," Juncadella claims.
With this solution the company is trying to resolve the problematic situation, using a grid with different time slots that is integrated into the purchasing process to which they also add a variable pricing layer. Juncadella explains: "You see different time slots and different prices because not all the slots are the same, as we divide the cost and difficulty of the delivery between different users and to the extent that they accept these proposed discounts, they are contributing to creating logical efficiencies and getting a discount with the purchase." The firm takes between 25, 50 and 75 cents for each delivery and the shop recovers this by charging a small premium on the price for consumers who choose the day and time of delivery.
Currently, users of online shops like Fashiop, Costalamel or Ulabox, have had the inefficiency of deliveries reduced by 2%, while ensuring the commitment to delivery and time of their logistical operators, normally the Catalan companies, Ara Vinc or Jets. At the same time, as they do in Madrid, they work with Tipsa because "we need operators with a wider reach, given that we are working with operators in Madrid and Barcelona, as we estimate that 70% of online purchases are in these two large cities."
The difficulty in guaranteeing a delivery time as close as possible to the moment of purchase is one of the great challenges facing the sector and, with Amazon dominating the market, it has motivated El Corte Inglés, among others, to make improvements. "For them there is a focus based on the time that they suggest, but we turn that around and let the user choose when they want it to be," insists Juncadella, who believes that the key is in the management of the stock, not so much the transport of the order. "Those who promise to deliver within two hours make me smile because sometimes they buy t-shirts in China and, therefore, will find it difficult to deliver in two hours. As I say it is not so much a logistical challenge as one of stock, of where your stock is located," he points out.
Growth and recognition
Yet their proposal also works offline, as shown with Casas, the Catalan shoeshop company. In its shops, the buyer can decide to take those boots they have just bought with them or, if they prefer, continue shopping and let a transport firm take the product to their houses. When? When they decide.
Right now, as they conclude the process of consolidating the business project, valued at six million euros, they are negotiating a new investment round with different funds with which they hope to raise two million euros to scale up a model that "has already shown itself to be efficient and profitable," he points out. They also hope to seal agreements with prominent Spanish and European supermarkets that could bring them the management of more than 1,000 deliveries.
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| The Nektria team on receiving the Crossborder Club eCommerce prize. Ceded |
And all this is happening at a key time, as in October Nektria won the 5 min pitch EGI SAAS competition of the Crossborder Club eCommerce, which recognised Nektria and RECShipping as the most innovative Software as a Service (SAAS) solution for eCommerce in Europe in 2016. It is an award to add to the Premi Fòrum d'Inversió, organised by Acció, which they won in July for the project with the most potential for innovation and internationalisation.