Infibeam, has announced the launch of SaaS-based logistics services aggregation platform called ShipDroid. The platform will help merchants deliver packages throughout the country. The service is currently integrated with Infibeam’s BuildaBazaar.
The merchants who sign up with BuildaBazaar platform will be able to deliver goods to over 20,000 pin codes across 600 cities of the country. ShipDroid platform will enable ecommerce merchants to integrate with various courier service providers in India while maintaining uniformity of entire logistics/fulfillment process across all courier partners.
Through this initiative, Infibeam addresses the problems faced by its small merchants and helps them choose a low cost courier company based on their need. The platform also eliminates the need for merchants to have courier agreements with multiple courier companies.
How Does ShipDroid Work?
- To use the service, merchants have to enable the settings in BuildaBazaar and signup.
- To deliver the product, merchants are free to pick the courier provider based on their preference of delivery. Merchants are allowed to choose from a variety of delivery commitment SLAs and modes of delivery.
- The next step is to print and paste shipping labels on the packaged product.
- And then a pickup boy is dispatched by the company to pick up the courier and deliver it. The package can be tracked by merchants using ShipDroid’s website
There are more options to the services based on the merchants’ convenience viz delivery of package through chosen transport or the speed of delivery time. However, in case a customer is not happy with a product, there is no return facility yet.
Apart from this, the platform also avails automatic AWB management, goods pick up in ‘one click’, unified tracking interface for all couriers, COD support, account and billing management and post shipping customer support.
Launched in May 2011, Buildabazaar is Infibeam’s enterprise platform that helps small, medium and large merchants start an online store under their own domain name. It is a self-service e-commerce platform. In 2012, Infibeam extended BuildaBazaar to the travel segment and later introduced the platform in UAE as well, with plans to offers the service in 10 more countries.
Various other players in the ecommerce marketplace offer logistics services, however, none of them have actually aggregated services from different courier services.
Last year, Amazon India launched its third-party logistics service in India working with kirana stores in Bangalore. Another player, Flipkart, had opened its own logistics arm eKart whereas JustDial announced integrating logistics services delivering products purchased via its marketplace.
