Success Story
About the Client
The Souled Store is one of India’s fastest-growing casual apparel brands, known for its pop-culture-inspired merchandise across categories including apparel, accessories, backpacks, and collectibles. The brand works with globally recognized entertainment franchises and sports teams, including Disney, WWE, IPL teams, and Viacom18. Originally launched as a digital-first fashion retailer, The Souled Store built a strong following among Gen Z and millennial audiences through its online store and mobile app. The company attracts millions of visitors to its digital channels every month and has steadily expanded its physical retail presence across major Indian cities.
Country:
India
Industry:
eCommerce & Retail
Business Situation
As The Souled Store scaled its digital operations and began expanding into physical retail, the company faced structural limitations in its existing technology infrastructure. While its e-commerce platform had successfully supported online growth, the systems powering digital and physical retail channels were not fully integrated.
Customers browsing online would occasionally find products listed as available, only to discover they were out of stock in nearby physical stores. Inventory discrepancies across channels led to lost sales opportunities.
At the same time, our client wanted to introduce modern omnichannel capabilities such as: BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In Store), Hyperlocal same-day delivery, and loyalty and wallet rewards.
However, their fulfillment architecture had been designed mainly for centralized warehouse shipments rather than distributed store networks. To support its next phase of growth, our client needed a fully integrated omnichannel commerce platform that could connect digital storefronts, retail outlets, inventory systems, and logistics partners into a unified ecosystem.
A third-party point-of-sale system further compounded the challenge. The POS platform offered limited customization and lacked deep integration with the brand’s digital commerce systems. As a result:
Pricing and promotions were difficult to synchronize across channels.
Loyalty rewards could not be applied consistently across digital and in-store transactions.
Customer profiles were fragmented between online and offline systems.
Cross-channel returns required manual reconciliation.
The Solution
The Souled Store partnered with Unthinkable to build a scalable omnichannel architecture that could support both digital growth and retail expansion. The project required:
- Development of a mobile commerce application as the central hub for customer engagement.
- A unified inventory management system with real-time synchronization across online and physical stores.
- Replacement of the legacy third-party POS system with a fully integrated in-house solution.
- Implementation of omnichannel fulfillment capabilities, including BOPIS, BORIS, and hyperlocal delivery.
- Integration with logistics partners such as Delhivery and other delivery providers.
- A unified customer identity and loyalty program across channels.
- Data analytics capabilities to improve marketing performance and campaign optimization.
Scalable E-Commerce Architecture
To deliver a consistent, high-performance user experience across platforms, the mobile application was developed with React Native, enabling a unified interface for both Android and iOS users.
The backend architecture was built with Python-based services to handle high volumes of real-time transactions and complex operational workflows across multiple retail nodes.
The platform was deployed on AWS cloud infrastructure, providing scalability, high availability, and secure data management. This architecture allowed the system to dynamically scale during peak traffic periods while maintaining cost efficiency during normal operations.
Split-Day Delivery
The platform introduced split-day delivery, allowing orders with multiple items to be fulfilled from different locations. When customers place an order, the system analyzes inventory availability across warehouses and retail stores to determine the most efficient fulfillment path. If a single location cannot fulfill the entire order, the system automatically splits the order across multiple fulfillment nodes. This intelligent routing improves delivery speed while maximizing the use of store inventory.
Hyperlocal Delivery Infrastructure
To support same-day delivery, the platform includes a hyperlocal routing engine that leverages nearby stores as micro-fulfillment centers.
Orders are automatically routed to the nearest store with available inventory and delivery capacity. If the nearest store cannot process the order within the required timeframe, the system dynamically reassigns fulfillment to another nearby location.
Delivery integrations with logistics partners such as Delhivery and other regional providers ensure efficient last-mile delivery operations. These integrations enable automated delivery scheduling, shipping status updates, and dynamic delivery time calculations based on city-level logistics conditions.
Custom POS and Mobile POS System
To overcome the limitations of the existing third-party POS platform, we designed and implemented a fully custom in-house POS system tightly integrated with the commerce backend. In addition to traditional store POS terminals, a mobile POS (mPOS) capability was integrated directly into the store application. This allows store associates to move freely across the retail floor while assisting customers with: product discovery and inventory checks. The mPOS system enables faster service and improves the overall in-store customer experience.
The new POS platform provides:
- Real-time inventory synchronization.
- Unified pricing and promotion logic.
- Cross-channel customer identity integration.
- Seamless return and exchange workflows.
Integrated Loyalty and Wallet System
The new platform introduced a unified loyalty and rewards system that connects online and offline transactions. The wallet infrastructure ensures rewards are updated in real time and synchronized across digital and retail systems.
Customers can now:
- Earn loyalty rewards across all channels.
- Redeem points both online and in-store.
- Maintain a unified wallet balance.
- Access purchase history across platforms.
Campaign Optimization and Data Analytics
To improve marketing performance and campaign effectiveness, the platform incorporates advanced data analytics and experimentation tools.
UTM-Based Campaign Optimization
Marketing campaigns across channels, including Instagram and digital ads, were optimized with UTM parameter tracking, routing traffic directly to product pages rather than generic landing pages. This optimization improved conversion efficiency and enabled better attribution of advertising spend.
A/B Testing for Campaign Assets
The platform also enabled A/B testing of campaign creatives and product imagery. For example, when two influencers or models promoted the same merchandise, the system could test different visual variants across segmented audiences. Performance data was then used to determine:
- Which influencer generated higher conversion rates.
- Which product imagery drove more purchases.
- Which campaign variations resonated with specific audience segments.
Faster Returns and Exchange Processing
Customer satisfaction was further improved through streamlined return and exchange workflows. The new system enables:
- Same-day return initiation.
- Next-day pickup scheduling.
- Faster refunds processed through integrated wallet systems.
- Exchanges completed within 5–7 days.
The Impact
Souled Store saw a significant increase in operational efficiency, customer experience, and marketing performance. The unified omnichannel platform has now positioned our client for continued retail expansion, with plans to scale to 100 stores nationwide. They now function as a fully connected retail ecosystem, where inventory, orders, loyalty programs, marketing insights, and delivery operations work together seamlessly across every channel.
Key outcomes include:
- Integrated inventory across all sales channels
- Seamless cross-channel loyalty and wallet system
- Faster delivery through hyperlocal routing and logistics integrations
- Improved campaign performance through A/B testing and analytics
11M+
Digital Users
69+
Retail Stores
~80%
Positive Brand Sentiment
