The race to win e-commerce shipping

Thanks to the emergence of e-commerce retail platforms through increased online purchases, retail websites may be selling similar products, but the online retailer that can get items delivered to their customers the quickest with the lowest shipping cost possible usually wins, The Loadstar reports.

E-commerce has become the main force driving shipping and delivery these past few years. There has been more economic activity going on for the trucking industry, shipping items for online retailers as confirmed by Alex Allen, head of the WCA E-Commerce Network. He attributes the “real traction over the last five [years] to the emergence of cross-border e-commerce.” The global aggregate was estimated at 30% as monitored in all of 10 years.

Delivering online orders

The need for items to be picked up and delivered back and forth has increased profitable opportunities for on-demand delivery services. Most freight forwarding companies successfully rode the tide of online shopping, “provided they have made, or are making, the necessary changes required to evolve,” as noted by Allen. It became a matter of sink or swim in an industry that is still relevant despite leaning away from the traditional approach of shipping freight.

A concern that Allen was blunt about was how the industry is “reactive to changes” as opposed to being proactive in changes for the sake of better business. It is like waiting for the market to do something else before adjusting to the needs of the end consumer. This led to a “quite fragmented” cargo industry.

Truckers and other delivery-based businesses are happy to rake in the profits. But Allen noted how not everyone in the freight forwarding industry understands “the exact needs of the clients.” He then pinpointed the main source of most on-demand delivery services today – “the guys causing the shift and generating new e-commerce volumes.”

So, the more items ordered online and shipped in real time, whether in retail or in bulk, the more business will be generated out of these companies providing freight forwarding services. Allen specifically mentioned “Amazon Prime which talks of delivery within hours of receiving the order.”

With the rise of same-day delivery services in the United States alone, Allen has noted the advantages of going local as far as cross-border solutions go – by adapting to the “local flavor” found in the regions that most of these couriers hope to address solutions-wise.

The proximity to the end customer makes many of these local couriers more flexible “in scale and service better than the big players,” reiterated Allen. “This will have a positive impact when e-tailers and industry seek to engage with a logistics provided in specific markets in an effort to better service their customers.”