Table of Contents
Introduction
The growing demand of ecommerce businesses will self-or orchestrate the corresponding need for a robust ecommerce logistics supply chain. Talking about India alone, currently, it has been deemed as the prime destination for logistic service providers globally, thanks to its ever-evolving and growing ecommerce retail chain of businesses.
There has been a sudden increase in the buying capacity of the middle and upper-class segments of society who are now relying more on online purchases over visiting a physical store. This rightfully explains the boost in the retail sector, which has led to a remarkable increase in the eCommerce shipping and eCommerce logistics sector as well.
As per reports, there is an estimation that the logistics and supply chain market in India would grow to become a $307 billion industry by the end of 2021.
Talking about the future of ecommerce logistics, it seems quite bright and automated. Where there is a high chance of reduction in errors and lowering of shipping costs with the application of AI software, there would be driverless trucks to provide faster and more effective deliveries between major warehouses and the connecting cities. Moreover, pilotless drones would be handed over the responsibility of handling last-mile deliveries to the end-users.
As it is an imperative part of the supply chain and distribution system, the ecommerce logistics sector is expected to touch a CAGR of 10.5% by the year 2025.
Let us now take a look at the conditions which have led to this drastic growth and why the future of logistics and supply chains in India is going to be bright in the coming years.
Improved Logistics
India is heading towards becoming an economic and logistics powerhouse as it is attracting huge investments in infrastructure and operational efficiency. One of the most cohesive parts of this is the introduction of tech-driven integrated logistics. Various IoT devices and automated sorters and handlers are being equipped at warehouses, which helps save time for in-house logistics operations.
Expanding Marketing Strategies
Extensive cultural research, along with brilliant marketing strategies, has led to a boost in the bilateral trade prospects of the country. More and more international business tycoons are investing in India, thereby helping in the optimization of the technological talent that India possesses. Massive growth has been recorded in FDI inflows, and these numbers are expected to grow at the same pace in the coming years.
Growing Export Prospects
The growing Indian economy is opening doors to new unconventional niches, which in turn has shot up both foreign exports and domestic consumption. The manufacturing standards have gone up, and so have the production facilities. In addition to this, new policies by the government have also led to a surge in the overall economy, including the eCommerce logistics sector.
Optimizing Asset Utilization Through Cloud Computing
Optimizing asset utilization is highly crucial to improve operational efficiency. This can be brought about by using leaner logistics through CartonCloud computing, which allows collaboration between service providers by sharing their fleets and networks.
The pickup and delivery of collaboration and coordination become much easier to track through cloud-based platforms in real-time. The delivery ecosystem becomes more efficient as the lag time of their fleet gets reduced.
New Age Technologies
As the logistics sector is seeing a boom, they are now investing more in new-age technologies to boost their services more effectively and efficiently. Machine learning, deep learning, and data analytics are being implemented to be ahead of the times. Initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ are highly responsible for bringing about a robust change in the eCommerce logistics segment.
Such groundbreaking technologies are instigating Indian firms, along with their international counterparts, to renovate the entire logistics and supply chain, which would show a drastic transformation in the near future. These advanced tech optimisations are sure to produce positive results in speeding up the profits for this industry.
Significant Reduction in Manual Intervention
Business processes are undergoing automation through artificial intelligence. This has led to a reduction in manual intervention for freight handling. The costs are lowering on account of improved quality of services and speedy delivery processes. The overall high logistics cost in India is gradually declining, thereby eliminating various hidden costs, improvising inspection by regulatory agencies, and reducing damage during handling.
Key location statistics are displayed in the radar of real-time tracking information through RFID and GPS, which have made the logistics systems more responsive.
Improvement in Trade Policies
The improved data policies have led to the amplification and promotion of bilateral trade and international businesses. Trade policies like MEIS and SEIS are making more room for an inductive business environment, thereby improving the supply and logistics chain management constructively.
Various initiatives undertaken by the government to improve bilateral trade are indirectly pushing the logistics sector to catalyze exports, and these efforts are only going to increase in the upcoming years.
Significant Improvement in Blockchain Technology
Blockchain technology is helping align logistics processes and thereby eliminates duplicates of the documentation processes. This technology is helping eradicate the chances of human errors that can occur due to manual entries.
Interactions between the several agents, carriers, drivers, terminals, shippers, etc., are all paced and monitored closely, digitally, through this single blockchain technology, making the chances of data manipulation nearly impossible. This has paved an easy way to achieve an end-to-end logistics system.
Final Take
eCommerce logistics companies are only going to accelerate in the future due to the ever-expanding digital customer base of ecommerce businesses. India is taking huge leaps in expanding and improving its infrastructural facilities through digital technologies to accommodate the expansion and growth of its logistics sector.
Hence, the future for this sector is extremely bright, but the challenge is to incur collaborated and concentrated efforts from all its stakeholders, including the infrastructure providers, the technology companies, the operators, and most importantly, the logistics service providers.