Logistics- The Key Differentiator Between eCommerce Players

Better Deliveries Make Happier Customers!

In India, the eCommerce sector has seen unprecedented growth in the recent past. eCommerce has taken the world of retail by storm and captivated the imagination of an entire generation of entrepreneurs with various business models. This growth was driven by rapid technology adoption led by the increased use of devices such as smartphones and tablets, and access to the internet through broadband, 3G, etc, which led to an increased online consumer base. This has led to more entrenched opportunities for logistics service providers and 3PL players.

Companies have now started realising, that logistics in India needs focus. Apart from the growing opportunities, it plays an important role in the economy and the GDP of the country. The rules of the game have changed. The new mantra is, “Buy anywhere, fulfil everywhere”. Companies in the logistics industry are constantly looking for an easier way to move their goods from point A to point B. This is true particularly in the Indian context, where efficiency, cost and time are the key pillars that may win you a customer for life, or disappoint them irreversibly. A ‘hands-off’ approach definitely does not work when talking about customer satisfaction. Even after investment of time, money and labor, the management of logistics in India is a tedious and expensive task.

Companies operating in the logistics industry face unique issues as delivery persons operate in vast territories. Major challenges these enterprises face include:

• Complex Routing Problems- Deliveries to many drop locations cause routing problems. The delivery boys are given a list of orders on paper and they are expected to decide on their own on which route to take to make fast deliveries.
• Locating customer addresses- Due to the dispersed customer location and dirty addresses, it is difficult for the delivery person to find the exact location. This results in late deliveries.
• Visibility of field workforce- In any business, managing the field workforce can be complicated. It is difficult to keep track of every driver or delivery boy which in turn leads to inefficiency.

Technology is the solution to these challenges. Logistics without advanced technology is non-productive and wasteful. Enterprises need to have a well-thought-out and adaptive plan to tackle this never-ending challenge of logistics management. The eCommerce behemoths such as Amazon and Alibaba, come with deep pockets and the patience to drive the Indian eCommerce market. Their strong domain knowledge and best practices from their international experience give them an edge over others. Indian companies realise this, and are therefore aiming at providing seamless and rapid delivery services in order to compete with the international entities.

At Locus, we firmly believe that customer satisfaction is the key discriminating factor for all logistics providers, and so we have put our focus on this. We have designed a platform, aimed to provide a tool that can help manage deliveries and to improve logistics operations, with particular emphasis on:

• Delivery Cost
• Delivery Performance
• Most Importantly, Customer Satisfaction

Locus has built a route planning engine which automatically plans and optimizes your deliveries, taking into consideration various business parameters, like SLA’s, volume constraints, etc., A proprietary geocoder, which provides the accurate pickup and drop locations which results in faster deliveries. And a dashboard which gives a complete view of the field workforce at any given instance.

It is of vital importance for online retailers, logistics providers and courier companies to ensure that every delivery meets their customers’ expectations. It is now critical for businesses to adopt the right technology which can help them take predictive and actionable decisions that better serve the customer and give them an edge over their competitors.