Summary: One of the advantages of having an online shop is that you do not necessarily need to carry stock. In fact that fits in with the improWEB e-commerce philosophy: Minimum risk, maximum gain and thereby reducing cost to the end client. However, to keep customers satisfied, delivery of products bought online must be swift and effective. For this reason, ImproWEB has decided to integrate a courier system into their solution as comprehensively as possible. This helps the reseller to get a state of the art delivery system to use as part of the improWEB solution.
ImproWEB integrated a single courier company, namely Internet Express, which specialises on delivery of products bought online. Therefore, they could negotiate better rates for all their resellers using economies of scale. By letting the courier pick up the product at the source (either the distributor or the reseller depending on configuration) there are fewer steps to take before getting the product to the customer.
Once a product is ordered on an improWEB e-commerce website, a waybill is created in real time at the courier company. This waybill tells the courier which products to pick up and where, and also where to deliver it.
Since all of this is done automatically by the improWEB system, the amount of work the reseller has to do to get the product to the end client is minimised and productivity is increased. Also, by reducing the distance the product has to travel, delivery can be done in less time and it even makes same day deliveries possible.
Costing of delivery and delivery options are build into the e-commerce website, leaving no surprise delivery cost to the reseller or to the customer. The cost is calculated accurately and at real time, which means that customers closer to the pick up address and densely populated areas do not have to pay higher rates to make up for customers farther away. Also, the resellers can reduce their profit margins and still be sure that they will not loose money because of delivery charges. In a nutshell: The advantages of a fully integrated courier system include:
* Better Cost
* Increased efficiency
* Increased productivity
* Reduced delivery time
* Reduced risk for the reseller
* Best possible price to the customers
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