Why Ecommerce Is Like Delivering An Infant!

Soubhagya Sahoo
CEO of Gray Routes, Soubhagya is an inventive entrepreneur and a persuasive authority on logistics & sales process with IIT-KGP/IIM-A education, and management experience obtained at world-leading companies such as Nvidia & Unilever.

For CEO of Caratlane, when the news broke to him that his jewellery estore had just received an order for a INR 2.5 Crore ($400 k) diamond ring, the expression would have been exactly similar to that of an Ekta Kapoor hit soap opera lead shockingly remarking 3 times

“Kya? Mein sahi mein Baap ban ne wala hoon?”.

To stretch the analogy further, his ERP portal would have i-can tested and responded with matching glee …

“Haan, mein tumhare bache ki maa banne wali hoon”.

So, if that’s the real happiness of just conceiving an infant, then why do most eCommerce giants scrounge when it comes to actually delivering an infant.

It often takes several months, or years of hard work to break such news to an eCommerce founder. In the case of Caratlane, who had been preparing for this very day, they’d hired a specialist 3P delivery firm that charges high amounts often in excess of INR 4000 for delivering each package with video-graphed proof of deliveries. Not every proud Papa can do that, especially with the shoestring budget of Rs. 30-40 per delivery or can they?

What about the rest?

Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, eBay, Myntra Jabong and the rest are still managing with make-shift arrangements and contracts with India Post (which Government claims to be the best e-Commerce logistics platform – sadly, there’s not one dedicated world-class ERP or software or world-class mobile app that India Post can brag about in that article) or Blue Dart or Gati (who’ve all made a habit of highlighting the human touch to make customers believe that their packages are on their way, yet return when they find the doors closed !) or GoJavas or ABC or XYZ Courier company or any other such local courier firm with the cheapest rates.

Isn’t this akin to finding cheap government hospitals or Nursing homes devoid of facilities to deliver your beloved “Aankhon ka tara”? Instead, what expecting Papas or rather e-Commerce owners or more appropriately, VP-Supply Chains and VP-Logistics should be doing is searching for the best Private Nursing homes or Hospitals, where their newborn’s stem cells are going to get banked affordably, where their infants are going to get MD consultation or proper incubation in a NICU if required, and where their mothers are going to return happy, healthy & delighted to give birth to several more infants.

The analogy above is clearly to Dedicated app and last mile delivery or Delivery Force Automation software solution providers that understand eCommerce needs, the urgency to deliver quickly and accurately, the immense value that lies within their packaged boxes and delivery data, the Uber-ish delight that comes to a customer’s face on seeing and communicating with a product approaching and being well delivered, and the value of simplicity of processes when it comes to measuring delivery staff quality, handling delivery rescheduling, traffic rerouting, destination reordering, bad roads, returns, rejects, COD or wrong deliveries – all automatically !

What would you say is the real reason why Indian eCommerce companies feel that merely outsourcing deliveries to India Post or a DHL is the way to go, when their Chinese counterparts know otherwise? And what then prevents a India Post or DHL from upgrading its capabilities with high-end intelligent last-mile routing and navigation solutions and customer-centric applications that can delight their e-Commerce client’s customers? You don’t have to be a UPS (USA’s leading cash-rich Postal Shipping provider) to be spending $1 Billion every year for last 13 years to build and test an on-road route optimizer and navigation solution, when there are dedicated world-class providers in India that’ll give you greater value at a fraction of the cost, and that too, 3 years before UPS gets it itself !

A US-based Fortune 500 Multi-format retailer looking to setup their India infrastructure, one of India’s largest pharma distributor, and a leading Mumbai-based courier service with an International & National delivery footprint are evaluating and delighted with GrayDrop Delivery Force Automation for their last mile delivery and courier automation needs.

Other smarter firms including Proctor & Gamble, Pace Projects & Logistics and the rest have already realized the immense benefits that these GPS-based solutions provide at introductory rates. It is time, forward thinking courier and e-commerce logistics providers or business owners woke up to a possibility that their manual delivery planning woes and painful delivery days are over, and that there are modern painless ways of delivering delicate or urgent packages with absolute brilliance and utmost care.

ECommerce is after all very similar to delivering an infant, and both infant and mother deserve the very best, not just the first time, but every time!