Zigly cut SKUs and scaled back online, narrowing losses by Rs 1 crore a month
Cosmo First's pet-care brand Zigly consolidated to 3,500 SKUs, leaned on vet services and offline stores, and says its marketplaces turned profitable.
What was changed
Zigly, the tech-enabled omnichannel pet-care brand of Cosmo First Limited, closed the last fiscal year with about Rs 40 crore in GMV — but by early 2024 incremental sales were producing incremental losses. Group CEO Pankaj Poddar told ETRetail the company deliberately scaled down its online operations to make course corrections, and that over the following six months monthly losses came down by about Rs 1 crore: 'whatever incremental revenues we are doing, are resulting in incremental profit, which was not the case six months back.'
The correction cut the assortment from 5,000 SKUs to 3,500 and bet big on services: 11 of its experience centres can now perform surgeries, many running 24x7, and centres have been growing 7–8% month on month — 10% last month with 20% expected this month. Offline now contributes 70% of revenue at an average cart of Rs 3,000 versus Rs 2,600 online, with offline growing 75–80% this year against 20–25% online. Zigly runs 24 company-owned experience centres in 11 cities, targets 40 by fiscal year-end and 150 stores in four years.
Private labels carry the margin push — Zigly Lifestyle, FurPro and Applod, with a signature range of 8–10 products launching and 20–30 more on the September 11 third anniversary, aiming for close to 100 products by year-end. The marketplace channels on Amazon and Flipkart have already turned profitable, Poddar said, and stores pan-India should reach EBITDA breakeven within 12 to 15 months. The figures are self-reported by the company; no third-party numbers appear in the article.
Why it worked
Growth was buying losses: online expansion had reached the point where each extra rupee of sales deepened the deficit, so the company stopped feeding it.
Services monetize better than goods alone — surgeries, 24x7 vet care and grooming drove month-on-month centre growth of 7–10% and bigger offline baskets.
A 5,000-SKU reseller assortment spread the team thin; 3,500 SKUs plus three private labels concentrate spend where margin is controllable.
Marketplace storefronts turned profitable first, showing a smaller, lighter online footprint can coexist with an offline-led P&L.
What can be applied
Omnichannel is two businesses: when online growth buys losses, shrink the catalogue and lean on the channels and services that pay for themselves first.
Aftermath
Zigly plans to expand from 5 categories to 20 by fiscal year-end, grow the signature private-label range to roughly 100 products by end of 2024, and may add a franchise-owned, company-operated model alongside its company-owned centres. It also launched a Happy Pet Index health-tracking tool and grooming hair coloring at centres. All figures are management's own claims made while still loss-making; this entry covers the 2024 consolidation, before the brand's later expansion push.