We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. The next eChai Startup Demo Day is on 29 August in Bengaluru and Pune. The next after that is on 26 September, all in person, with 12 cities confirmed and 517 founders registered. See your city
An area

Operations, shipping & CX

Inventory, fulfillment, returns, and support that create repeat buyers, not tickets.

Inventory & demand planning 6

Never stock out on your hero, never drown in dead SKUs.

How much safety stock should I actually be holding on my hero SKU? 4 → How do I forecast demand for a brand-new SKU with zero sales history? 4 → My bestseller keeps going out of stock during sales, how do I fix my reorder timing? 4 → How do I stop drowning in dead and slow-moving SKUs? 4 → Do I need inventory management software, or can I still run this on spreadsheets? 4 → All 6 questions in Inventory & demand planning →
Warehousing & 3PL fulfillment 6

Store and ship without owning a warehouse.

Should I rent my own warehouse or just go with a 3PL? 4 → How do I actually evaluate and pick the right 3PL, what questions do I ask? 4 → What's the difference between marketplace fulfillment (like Amazon/Flipkart) and a D2C 3PL warehouse? 4 → How do I get a proper WMS in place so I can actually trust my inventory data? 4 → When should I move from one warehouse to multiple fulfillment centers across India? 4 → All 6 questions in Warehousing & 3PL fulfillment →
Shipping, couriers & aggregators 6

Get parcels delivered cheap, fast, and everywhere.

Should I use a shipping aggregator like Shiprocket, or go direct with a courier? 4 → Delhivery vs Ekart vs Blue Dart vs Xpressbees, which courier should I actually use? 4 → How do I get my shipping costs down without wrecking delivery speed? 4 → How do I ship internationally from India without getting killed by customs and duties? 4 → How do I give customers real-time delivery tracking when I'm shipping across multiple couriers? 4 → All 6 questions in Shipping, couriers & aggregators →
RTO, returns & COD management 7

The silent margin-killer, control the return.

What is RTO and why is it quietly killing my D2C margins? 4 → What's a normal RTO rate in India, and how do I know if mine is too high? 4 → Should I even offer COD, or just go prepaid-only? 4 → How do I actually reduce RTO and block fake or fraudulent COD orders? 4 → How do I convert COD orders to prepaid, and what is partial COD? 4 → All 7 questions in RTO, returns & COD management →
Customer support & CX 6

Support that creates repeat buyers, not tickets.

What customer support channels should a D2C brand actually offer at launch? 4 → Gorgias, Zendesk, or Freshdesk, which helpdesk should I actually pick? 4 → How do I set up WhatsApp for customer support in India, Gallabox, Interakt, Zoko, or WATI? 4 → How do I stop 'where is my order' messages from drowning my support inbox? 4 → What response-time and resolution benchmarks should my support team actually be hitting? 4 → All 6 questions in Customer support & CX →
eChai Partner Brands