In the Era of Millennials, Logistics Services Need to Catch Up

We have been hearing about the eCommerce boom brought along by Amazon over the past decade. As the giant has entered new markets from around the world, the biggest hurdles have been the delivery processes and logistics on a whole. Taking India in perspective, not only are there multiple eCommerce players like Flipkart and Snapdeal who have rivalled Amazon’s ambitions in the country, but there have been changes in the Supply Chain tailored to what these companies need.
But hey, we are not just talking about the express logistics and transportation services here. Rather, we are talking about the bigger picture — the way eCommerce has had an impact on all forms of logistics services, including inbound and outbound.

eCommerce Boom ->> Higher Demand ->> Pressure on Supply Chain to become more efficient ->> Rapid growth in the Manufacturing Sector ->> Implementation of New Technologies ->> Overall Improvement in Logistics Industry

A Positive Impact on Supply Chain Management Practices

The first change in the supply chain management industry has been the simplification of the processes. Warehouses throughout the country are in the process of being upgraded or are awaiting the passage of the GST bill to change their location strategies.

Now, there are multiple sources of data that need to be handled during such processes. While paper documentation is a thing of the past, companies are still far from utilizing the true potential of Big Data to leverage effort intensive tasks for better outputs.

• Most businesses have multiple warehouses across India which receive and/or dispatch multiple trucks with multiple consignments to multiple destinations.
• This is all significant data that has to be aggregated on a daily basis and churned to achieve process optimization.
• Big data and Data Lakes can help solve these issues in a considerably shorter time duration aided by data analytics and automation.

Time for Leaner Transportation Logistics Processes

The developmental strides in transportation logistics rely on enhancing the efficiencies, but in this day and age, business entities do not want to be bothered by the niggles in their logistics process. This is exactly where new-age logistics firms have started gaining a foothold. Owing to the reluctance or lack thereof in terms of resource allocation from manufacturers associated with the e-commerce industry, several logistics companies have started offering end-to-end transportation solutions which are aided by technology.

The Indian e-commerce industry is a behemoth that was expected to grow at the fastest pace in the Asia-Pacific Region at an expected CAGR of over 57% between 2012–16 in a popular report. Thus, it is no secret that the manufacturing industry will see strong growth as well owing to the need for high demand fulfillment.

The Logistics industry is catching up, but the gap between express logistics solutions and ordinary processes is wider than it ever was. In an era when millennials are progressively taking up significant positions in the pecking order, their acquaintance with technology and higher expectations from logistics processes is sure to trickle down as competitors in the segment start rehashing their tech-savvy credentials.

To defy conventional thinking, the ordinary logistics processes sure need an extraordinary effort by the industry on a whole.

This piece highlights the viewpoints that belong to Quikhop Logistic Solutions, and may or may not depict thought streams that are popular amongst industry brethren.