Fleet management from A to Z

In the Logiico article series about e-commerce startups and online stores, we discussed the importance of fleet management. We examined successful examples like Amazon and the strategies they used in their fleet management.

Continuing the Logiico Blog series, we turned to our own online stores. Startups that, despite current conditions, strive to maintain and improve the quality of their services. In this article, we will explore methods of product delivery in stores, the dos and don'ts of using our own fleet or intermediary companies, and the costs and infrastructure needed to set up an online store fleet. Stay with us.

Giants, Models for New Businesses

Perhaps we can consider Digikala online store as the best service provider in this field. A store that overcame many challenges in its early days is now recognized as the largest online store in Iran.

Digikala's story can be a good model for many businesses that have just started in this field or have been around for a few years.

We examine e-commerce startups and new online stores in areas such as:

• How to create value for customers
• Main competitive advantage over others
• Problems and challenges

We will review.

Creating Value for Customers

This may be considered the core and goal of any business, but the important point is how to create value for the customer?

Looking at large businesses in this field shows that price is not everything for the customer. Yes, you read that right, price is not everything. Your customer needs to feel a pleasant shopping experience. This good experience can be through exciting offers and discounts, timely and free delivery, and other methods.

Research conducted by the Logiico team on the audience of online stores yielded interesting results. These results show what your customer considers valuable and what points active businesses in this field should pay attention to for creating value for their customers:

• Reasonable prices considering market conditions
• Timely free delivery
• Possibility of returning goods in case of defects
• Diversity in offering different products

Main Competitive Advantage

Competition in the startup market, if not accompanied by strategy and calculated steps, ultimately leads to failure. Businesses in this field are well aware of this, and as we see on every shopping site, they all try to capture a larger market share by offering interesting discounts and incentive plans to their customers. There are many strategies that can be considered a competitive advantage for your business, and here we mention three of them:

• Speed in service delivery
• Quality of the service provided
• Price and cost to the customer

Speed and quality of service provided are more evident in fleet management. Most online stores, to improve their quality and increase customer satisfaction, try to deliver purchased goods for free and in less than 48 hours, but conditions do not always go as planned, and unforeseen problems may arise in product delivery, which we will discuss further.

Problems and Challenges of Product Delivery

The point of difference between new startups and more experienced companies in this field lies in the type of challenges and how they face and solve problems. The challenges of new startups can be categorized and defined as follows:

• Role management
• Internal and external organizational communication management
• Fleet support and management
• Fleet management
• Customer feedback and support

Issues such as role management, internal and external communication management, and customer support are considered resolved in large companies in this field. These companies have formed teams consisting of specialists in each area, including customer relations, marketing and sales, technical support, and more, to overcome their numerous and superficial challenges.

In the meantime, considering the topic of the article and the trend we are examining in this series of articles, we will look into the fleet management problems of these companies, but before that, we will address an important question in this area.

Our Fleet or Others?

Many online stores face a dilemma when setting up their fleet. Online stores currently operating deliver purchased goods in two ways:

1. Using their own fleet
2. Outsourcing to third-party logistics service providers (3PL)

Setting up a transportation fleet for online stores involves high costs and responsibilities. Startups new to this market prefer to use companies that provide delivery and distribution services. In one of Logiico's articles, we mentioned solutions to this question, which can be useful to read.

Fleet Management Problems for Online Stores

There are also startups that use their own fleet for product delivery. Here, fleet management becomes particularly important. As mentioned above, your customer is the main asset of your business, and to capture a larger market share, you need to be extremely sensitive and precise in delivering your products. Here, we point out the problems of better fleet management in these businesses:

• Having a plan and strategy according to the organization's goal
• Controlling the process from order to delivery to the customer
• Managing peak order hours
• Support

Specific Strategy and Plan

The strategy and plan defined for fleet management are based on the core and main goal of the organizations. In online stores, the common goal is to increase customer satisfaction and ensure timely, safe delivery and customer confidence in receiving the purchased product in good condition. Decisions made in this area aim to satisfy these objectives.

Process Control

Controlling the product delivery process plays an important role in increasing efficiency and improving communication between different units such as warehousing, packaging, and logistics. Large examples in this field always try to improve the product delivery process and better manage their fleet by reviewing the delivery process and the feedback received from customers at specific intervals.

Managing Peak Order Hours

Throughout the year, there are specific periods when the demand for various products is very high. For example, now that we are two weeks away from the New Year, online stores experience a sinusoidal wave in purchases. For new stores, this is considered an ideal opportunity to attract more customers with proper management in product delivery.

Support

In any process, it is necessary to have a specific plan for unforeseen events. This is vital with a strong support team that can make decisions in critical situations. We can describe critical situations as follows:

• Incorrect delivery of goods
• Order invoice lost
• Physical damage to goods
• Accident involving the vehicle
• Fleet malfunction

These are some of the necessary factors for fleet management that we mentioned. In future Logiico articles, we will examine these factors.

Conclusion

New startups in the field of e-commerce and online stores can use the successes and failures of large companies in this field as a guiding light for their own business. The challenges faced by these businesses, most importantly role management and fleet setup and management, can be addressed with proper management and the use of management tools aimed at reducing costs, saving time, and achieving the main goal of these businesses, which is customer satisfaction.

What suggestions do you have in this area? Share your suggestions and opinions with us through the "Comments" section at the bottom of the page.