The first ever B2B e-market place for maritime purchases – Shipskart offers a one-stop shop for all your maritime needs.
What does a ship’s Captain do when they need to replenish their stores right in the middle of the ocean? Rather than waiting to shop upon arrival at the next port of call, a better idea is to logon to Shipskart and place an order and receive the stocks upon arrival at the port. This is what exactly Shipskart does – “Clicked at Sea – Delivered at Shore.” ShipsKart is a supply chain e-commerce solution for the maritime and offshore domain.
ShipsKart is an online procurement platform, which brings the vessel, vessel owners/operators and vendors on a single platform. The master/manager of the vessel/ installation can create purchase requisitions from a mobile app or Web portal by accessing 50,000 listed products. ShipsKart enables the vessel to generate purchase requisitions and upload them to the office, tracks the approval process and monitors the delivery process. ShipsKart supports the natural flow of the purchase requisition through client’s defined processes to approval and selection of one or more vendors from the range of verified vendors registered with it. The chosen vendor(s) processes the purchase order(s) and delivers the same through the vessel’s agent on the vessel’s arrival at the agreed port of call, and confirms delivery on-line.
Disadvantages of the traditional system
The present procurement process mostly revolves around creating requisitions on Excel Sheets and age old ERP software. The issues associated with the present process are:
- Expensive and complicated ERP software.
- Exchange of multiple e-mails and phone calls for a single order.
- Possibility of favouritism towards a particular vendor.
- No images, very brief descriptions of products leading to wrong deliveries.
- Inefficient and costly
- In ability to track orders online.
- No review of orders by the end user.
How do the ports/shipping lines benefit?
ShipsKart has been developed using fit-for-purpose, adaptive technology. Merits of ShipsKart:
- B2B digitalised e-commerce solution
- Cloud based, on-line platform
- All stakeholders on the same platform
- Access to verified vendors
- 100 % transparent, reviewable system
- Faster than current processes
- Visual, icon-based, lesser possibility of errors or omissions
- Works on low Internet speeds and even works offline
- Report generation modules to analyse procurement patterns
Scaling the product
The Shipskart team is in the final stage of raising $50,000 and intends to use the capital for scaling the product by:
1) Having complete in-house tech team
2) Starting with warehouses in the prominent ports where maximum client vessels call.
3) Getting more and more vendors from various ports around the globe on the Platform. ShipsKart endeavours to be the one stop procurement platform.
4) Having Whole sellers and manufacturers on the platform. This will enable in providing clients with most competitive pricing.
5) Completely looking after the logistics – To play the role of an aggregator.
A vision to streamline the way marine stores are ordered, approved and received on board a vessel led to the inception of ShipsKart. Our aim is to provide a completely stress-free and convenient solution for your maritime needs in India and across the globe.
