Business Challenges

A leading perfume distributor based in New York, who was also an existing remote infrastructure management services customer of Quadra, was looking at ways and means to increase the scope and profitability of its existing business line. A highly competitive industry, and fast changing fashion trends meant that distribution margins were increasingly under pressure.

The customer was looking to leverage their existing strengths to drive additional revenues. The retail segment was lucrative  much more profitable than distribution, but setting up a retail chain involved huge investments and expensive branding exercises. Going online was the logical choice, but they needed an integrated strategy to cope with the clutter and stand apart in a fickle, one click away from a competitor market.

Quadra at work

Our consultancy team analyzed their business model and operations, and quickly realized that there was a lot of inherent specialization in the industry. While our customer's volumes were almost entirely perfumes, there were other players in the industry focused on different aspects of the cosmetics business, such as hair care, skin care and even nail care. This focus gave the respective players a lot of leverage in terms of stocking and prices. However, setting up an online presence meant that customers would want a one stop shop, instead of having to visit multiple websites for their needs. To leverage our customer's existing business networks, we suggested setting up an online universal selling and buying engine, with multiple storefronts to capture additional eyeballs. This unified engine would link electronically to its partners, and based on price and stock availability, 'drop ship' for non core orders, thus ensuring that customers had the best of prices and availability.