Value Added by Courier Company to an E-commerce Business
In the last few years we have entered entirely into a digital world , from ordering clothes to food all is being done by simple clicks on our smartphones. All this was possible because now is the era of ecommerce.
What is an ecommerce business ?
Ecommerce is a new way to buy or sell products and services online. So, ecommerce is giving equal opportunity to all sorts of businesses. Ecommerce in fact is much more than just buying or selling off things, there are many more sectors which are behind the success of Ecommerce. So E Commerce is an integration of all those departments. These departments handle different parts such as buying, selling departments, customer support team , logistics team , courier delivery team, feedback team, IT team. So when these departments work in coordination that too online then we can say that this is ecommerce business.
Types of E-commerce business:-
1.B2B – Business to business , in this type of ecommerce the buyer and seller both run business and there are no individual consumers involved in it and direct sales of goods takes place between the businesses.
2. B2C – Business to consumer, in this type of business model, businesses sell their products to consumers. Majority of E-commerce business takes place through this model only.
3.C2C – In this type of business model , an ecommerce platform is provided to consumers to sell products to other consumers, for example eBay.
4.C2B- In this type of business consumers primarily artists sell the products made by them to the companies doing business.
How courier service companies are adding value to ecommerce businesses?
If you are making products and you have potential clients too but you are not able to deliver your product to those clients then your ecommerce business is of no use . So here courier companies play a very important role , basically they act as a bridge between the business and the client. The primary job of a courier company is to deliver the product to the client, but if we see closely, the courier/logistics company does more than just delivering the shipment.
Various functions performed by Courier or Logistics Company which adds value to the company:-
1.Order management : Logistics services roles start with order management or order processing in which the logistics handles all the orders received and segments them according to their pickup and drop location. In more simple terms it includes filtering of the orders based on their locations.
2.Warehousing : It is one of the most important functions of the logistics company, in this physical products are stored at one place so that the logistics cost of shipping gets reduced and we can have one point of contact for all sorts of deliveries.
3. Inventory management : It is always important to maintain the demand and supply of your products and this is all done through inventory management. You would never want to have a short supply of your products as it will reduce your revenue and you would want to store excessive goods in your warehouse as it will enhance the holding cost and eventually the final price of your product. So logistics helps in inventory management so that you have the right amount of supply to match the demand.
4. Packaging : After receiving the order , the next important step is to neatly and correctly pack the product which is to be shipped. Packaging should be aesthetic which appeals to the customer and packaging should contain all the necessary addons with the main product. Moreover the package should have the right labelled address so that the package doesn’t get misplaced while delivering.
5. Transportation: After the package is packed next time is for delivery of the package to the right client. Logistics ensure the right package is delivered to the client too as early as possible.
7.Managing the return orders : It is not possible that every client you have sent a product to will like the product, therefore there are chances of return or replacement of the order, so the courier company has to manage such requests too.
Final Thoughts:-
E-commerce businesses are there to stay , there’s no doubt about it, but the main reason behind its success is the courier companies behind it. Logistics service is the backbone of the ecommerce business and ecommerce business is unimaginable without the concrete support from the logistics industry. E-Commerce is going to expand more in the near future, because more and more companies are entering both the ecommerce business and courier delivery business, so more advancement can be witnessed in the times to come.
Coming to the value addition part to the business, we have already seen how courier companies are delivering much more than the transportation of the shipment.
