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Case study, fashion export to Europe, the USA and Japan

Citrus Fashions: from nine Excel files to one order entry

  • Zoho CRM
  • Export management system
  • Built by Biz Systems

Citrus Fashions is an Indian fashion export house producing scarves, western wear and accessories for international wholesale buyers. It runs two brands and ships 50 to 60 export orders a month, about 60% to Europe, 30% to the USA and 10% to Japan.

140 to under 20 minto process one order
9 documentsgenerated from a single order entry
3 to 5, now 10 to 15orders handled a day
Under 2%document errors, down from 10 to 15%

The objective

Replace nine separate Excel files with one integrated export order system. Every order, from the first buyer enquiry in Paris or New York to final export compliance closure, should be tracked in one place. Order data should be entered once, with documents, payments, production status and compliance following from it. Capacity had to grow to 10 to 15 orders a day without adding staff.

The challenge

  • Each order was entered by hand into nine Excel files, so the same data was typed five to nine times
  • Processing took 140 minutes an order on average, which capped the team at three to five orders a day
  • Copy and paste between files produced a 10 to 15% document error rate
  • There was no central order tracking, so pipeline status meant asking the team
  • Bank knockoff and EBRC compliance were managed in separate spreadsheets
  • Nobody could tell which trade show had generated which revenue
  • Production status, the delivery calendar and outstanding payments by buyer were not visible

What was built

  • A single order entry form with 10 sections and over 90 fields, auto-filling more than 90% of all nine export documents
  • A 15-stage customer journey from inquiry received to order closed, including bank knockoff and EBRC stages
  • Multi-currency orders in EUR and USD, with INR conversion for customs and IGST, RoDTEP and drawback calculations
  • Document formats for the EU, the USA and Japan picked automatically from the buyer country, with a manual override
  • Payment tracking for advance and balance, with automatic status and overdue escalation
  • Every order linked to the trade show it came from, for return-on-fair reporting
  • Compliance alerts for bank knockoff after 10 days and EBRC after 60 days
  • Five reports, three dashboards for sales, operations and finance, and seven automatic email templates
  • A colour-coded delivery calendar for the logistics team
  • Delivered in 10 weeks across seven phases, with training for seven roles

The 15-stage export pipeline

  1. Inquiry received
  2. Quotation sent
  3. Order confirmed
  4. Advance received
  5. Production in progress
  6. Production complete
  7. Balance payment pending
  8. Balance received
  9. Documents prepared
  10. Shipped
  11. In transit
  12. Delivered
  13. Bank knockoff
  14. EBRC completed
  15. Order closed

The nine documents from one entry

  1. Proforma invoice or order confirmation
  2. Line sheet for production
  3. Production order sheet
  4. Commercial invoice
  5. Client packing list
  6. Custom invoice for courier
  7. Custom packing list
  8. Air waybill capture and tracking
  9. Shipping bill data for the customs broker

The results

  • Order processing down from 140 minutes to under 20, an 86% reduction
  • Capacity up from three to five orders a day to 10 to 15, with the same team
  • Document error rate down from 10 to 15% to under 2%
  • Live visibility of all 15 stages across European, American and Japanese buyers
  • Bank knockoff and EBRC compliance tracked inside the CRM, with no separate files
  • Revenue attributed to the trade show that generated it
  • Air waybill tracking, a delivery calendar and shipment performance metrics in daily use

More case studies: Prabha Fashion, Durja Boutique

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