Most of us are already acquainted with the word ‘E-commerce’ that has changed the way businesses work in many ways. E-commerce has simplified buying & selling goods or services through the internet without having the need to visit the store or the other party. The process of buying or selling has been simplified with both being just one click away. The e-commerce industry continues to evolve and experience high growth in both developed and developing markets with large brands & new foundations setting their foot in the sector. The digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $15 billion in 2016 while the online sales are expected to reach $200 billion by 2026. The booming sector relies completely on logistics to deliver the commodities or products to the consumers. The E-commerce business involves incubating warehouses at multiple geographical locations, procuring the ordered product from the vendor, bringing it to the warehouse and then dispatching it to the customer’s door located at a different geographical location, through logistics. Every single order placed through e-commerce goes through this general procedure of procuring & dispatching and thus E-commerce relies on logistics for its every single order. Hence the rise in E-commerce sector has the logistics & transit sector too booming with many industries hiring third party logistics while many setting up in-house logistics too.

Challenges of Logistics ahead: The rise of e-commerce sector is diversified across various segments like apparel, grocery, electronics, etc. Working with such diversified products/services has many challenges in itself.

1. Data Complexity: Handling a large amount of data is a challenge, especially when your entire business revolves around digital data that increases exponentially each day with more sales.

2. Fleet Management: As the e-commerce relies on the fleet for delivery of the offerings to the consumer and procuring from various vendors, fleet management is a challenge. From tracking the fleet to maintaining data of individual vehicles to delivering the products on-time is a tedious task for the business.

3. Asset Security: Since the business involves the products to be procured from the vendor and delivering it to the customer’s door through logistics, asset security becomes a challenge. The logistics involve fleet management which has its own asset security challenges too.

4. Complex Operations: Managing an e-commerce involves complex operations. It not only involves management of its website & digital payments but faces a supply management challenge after confirmation of orders. It involves setting up warehouses at multiple locations, procuring ordered products from various vendors to the warehouse & dispatching them to the customer’s door located across various geographical locations by fleet operation through a channel of multiple operational checkpoints. Add to that the time constraint for delivery of products.

5. Finding a Good E-commerce Logistic Partner: While many companies in-source their logistics which gives them control over operations, many hire a 3^rd party logistics (3PL). Finding a good 3PL, who can understand one ’s online business’s offerings, provide reliability, uniformity, security & scalability is a challenge.

6. Quality and Order Accuracy: Fulfilling orders timely & accurately is a challenge for logistics. Chances of product damage, wrongly product delivered or other such miscellaneous errors are high due to the huge amount of orders. Since serving an order goes through a long process & distance as well, keeping up with quality & time is challenging.

7. The Last Mile Delivery: The last mile delivery has been proving to be a challenge for logistics. According to a study, 28% cost is incurred due to last mile delivery which involves delivering the product from the distribution center of product’s destination region to the customer’s door. The cost of delivering product to an individual customer is high due to the unpredictability in transit and customer availability taking up infrastructure & resources. It is also important as the consumer anticipates a good experience of purchase at this point.

8. Inventory Synchronising: Logistics for E-commerce involves managing supply chain. The right amount of products needs to be procured at the right time. Excess stock can cause financial crunch while deprived stock can lose your customers. Hence a good proportion of stock inventory is a challenge.

9. Connected Warehouses: For a business with a diversified product range, it is important to have a track of which products being stocked at what place. Also, the data across all the warehouse needs to be uniform at all times.

10. Brand Establishment & Reputation Management: The ever-growing sector has ever growing competition. Establishing a brand, earning trust & maintaining a reputation are the keys that will help the business to sail in the long run, which again can be a challenge.

11. Customer Retention: Like every business, e-commerce seeks customer retention. The rate of customers being influenced by competitors is very high in this sector since competitors are just one click away. Trust building, brand establishment & reputation management are the other challenging factors that influence customers.

12. Business Analysis: A business with the challenges of complex operations, asset security, data complexity, fleet management, and much more face an even graver challenge of analyzing your business by analysis individual sub-departments.

GPS vehicle tracking system to the rescue: Installing GPS vehicle tracking system can prove to be advantageous in many ways for an e-commerce logistics. The major issues & challenges can be resolved by a GPS vehicle tracking system like Tracko. With live tracking & playback feature, logistics managers can track their fleet’s live movement, keeping them updated on the status of the product. With Reports management like Stay Report, Automated Report, Vehicle Management, Driver Management and Maintenance Management, GPS vehicle tracking system can not only help manage the operations but also helps to take (optimized) business decisions. The feature of Alarms like theft Alarm, Vibration Alarm, Over-speed Alarm, Low Battery Alarm, SOS Alarm to give you a peace of mind while your fleet is operational. SMS/Email/ Mobile App Notifications keeps the operational stakeholders updated with every action of the fleet.

GPS vehicle tracking system used for logistics can be beneficial for the efficient management of orders. While timely delivery & disaster management are tangible benefits, intangible benefits like better customer service & customer satisfaction too can be achieved. The ever-growing E-commerce Logistics can make most of the GPS vehicle tracking system to reap better benefits from the business.