SaaS startup PluginHive eyes a million shipments in a month

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: PluginHive, a city[1]based startup, is a software-as[1]a-service (SaaS) company that provides order fulfillment solutions to e-commerce platforms across the globe.

A lot of e-commerce stores are springing up in India. However, 70-80 percent of the e-commerce market is controlled by Amazon and Flipkart, said Ahammed Mirdas, the founder of PluginHive.

 In other countries, such as Canada, America and the UK, individual stores are starting to grow. They often cannot afford a full-fledged development team for the purpose of completing the orders placed on e-commerce sites. This is where PluginHive comes into play and helps automate the shipping process.

Their primary customers are currently located in the UK, Canada a n d  Au s t r a l i a . Their customer base, however, extends to 60 countries. Recently, they have received many queries from India and have also tried to set up a collaboration with IndiaPost to make deliveries. Unfortunately, the agreement was not fruitful, he said.

It helps small and medium-sized store owners who create their own instant e-commerce shops using platforms such as Shopify.

“Now, businesses do not need a development team of their own. They can come up with their website but require solutions to shipping,” Mirdas said.

The shipment is done by shipping companies such as Fedex and PluginHive also has tie-ups with other reputed companies around the world, he added.

PluginHive was founded by Ahammed Mirdas in 2015.

 “When I started this organisation, I did not want to start it on venture capital funding. If I solve a problem that is existing in the market, I will definitely make money, was the idea,” Mirdas said. He added that when startups are initiated on venture capital funding, the focus of the product is more on making a profit and the problem-solving aspect becomes secondary. “We started and it has taken a long time, almost seven years, to get where it is now. We received profits and survived, and are now a strong team of 40 members. We have been able to recruit experienced workers in recent times,” he said.

For seven years, the team has worked on its fundamentals and is now directing its resources towards the expansion of the company.

“We will become one of the top e-commerce order fulfilment experts, where at least a million shipments will be made in a month,” answered Mirdas when asked about what he sees to be the future of the company. Currently, they ship 1.6 lakh packages per month.