Small and medium eCommerce brands often struggle when it comes to fast delivery. Well, we have the answer to it.

The Indian eCommerce industry is on an exceptional growth trajectory, especially since the surge in digital adoption after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It is estimated that the eCommerce sector is likely to reach USD 111.40 billion by 2025 from USD 46.20 billion in 2020, which indicates an annual growth of 19.24%. Retail experts foresee grocery to become one of the key pillars of growth predicted to reach USD 18.2 billion in 2024 from the USD 1.9 billion in 2019, expanding at a CAGR of 57%. In fact, the Indian online retail market is estimated to reach the USD 350 billion by 2030 from the current market, amounting to the USD 45 to 50 billion.

At the India Internet Day 2021, organized by TIE Delhi NCR, experts said that the number of online shoppers is expected to reach about 500-600 from 150 million shoppers in CY-2020. In recent years India has seen exponential digital advancement from the increase of smartphone purchases to the 5G rollout in the pipeline. According to the latest research, shipments of smartphones grew by 82% YoY to reach over 33 million units in Q2, 2021.

So, this massive growth in the eCommerce sector has encouraged many small and medium businesses or retailers to come forward in the market and start selling their products online. However, to survive and grow, they need to overcome the cut-throat competition and excel in their processes and operations to escape getting replaced by the eCommerce giants.

With the massive increase in the number of online shoppers, there is a significant rise in the competition among eCommerce retailers. Apart from this, there is also a major shift in consumer behavior and their expectations. Currently, one of the major demands of consumers is faster delivery and more delivery options. You also need to ensure that every order is delivered on time, every time. Let’s see what smaller and medium eCommerce retailers require for faster delivery to retain and grow their customer base:

Efficient Inventory Management. One of the most crucial steps towards faster order fulfillment is to manage inventory efficiently. It’s essential to be on top of the current market trends, follow demand forecasting and analysis as accurately as possible. To compete with the eCommerce giants, you need to have advanced tracking tools in place to monitor your inventory and provide real-time insight. You can also set up an automated inventory management workflow to focus on the other aspects of the business, such as customer service, fraud prevention, and merchandising.

Fulfillment Outsourcing. To thrive in this highly competitive market and expand your eCommerce retail brand, managing all the nuances of logistics operations with your in-house team is difficult. In that case, you need a dedicated team of logistics experts that might not be cost-effective until your turnover reaches a certain level. Once you outsource this crucial business function, you get enough time and resources to focus on your products and the other aspects of the business.

Regulatory compliance. Logistics providers handling food and grocery products need to comply with some food and grocery-related stringent rules and regulations of the country. Some guidelines laid down for refrigerated fulfillment have to be followed, or your business might face legal issues.

Selecting the Right 3PL Partner. The right 3PL partner can make or break your brand reputation, especially if there is an order fulfillment issue. The selection becomes a crucial process as it might risk your customer satisfaction. After all, your customers know your brand and not the 3PL. Some of the critical factors that you should evaluate carefully are the following:

Ensure that they understand your vision and align their operations to help you achieve your goals.

Verify their technological and infrastructural capability to help grow your business.

Check how adaptive they are in scalability to cater to the ever-changing needs of a high-demand eCommerce business.

Make sure to validate their return management system as it is crucial to maintain your customer satisfaction and be on top of the game.

Review the expertise, knowledge, experience of their team carefully for you to trust them with an essential function of your business as logistics.

Here comes XPDEL, a US-based high-tech provider of fulfillment and logistics services, serving you now in India as well. In a fiercely competitive market like India, where eCommerce giants are rapidly replacing retail and small businesses, XPDEL is on a mission to help smaller retailers succeed with eCommerce. Empowered with a strong network and advanced technological and infrastructural capability, we bring growth solutions to help you succeed. We solve your inventory, order fulfillment, and logistics needs by providing a complete solution from the order through delivery. Our live tracking and visibility result in an exceptional customer experience.

Conclusion:

In the end, it is a smart choice for you to partner with a 3PL provider to overcome competition and expand your business. However, selecting the right 3PL partner is quite crucial because, at the end of the day, it’s your reputation that is at stake. Hence, we urge you to weigh all the pros and cons of each 3PL service provider and then make a data-driven, informed decision to select the right partner to win the game. Beat the competition and get going!

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