Online Shoppers Prefer Couriers Than Parcels : Zencommerce

Zencommerce platform  has analyzed the delivery methods chosen by its customers. They mostly order the delivery through courier – applies to 56% of orders. The most popular among stores and clients are courier companies such as: FedEX, DTDC, Blue Dart and UPS. 35% of orders are very often delivered by smaller, local courier companies. This situation may change soon due to the new, unified Goods and Services Tax. It will replace the existing tax law, which imposed double taxation on courier companies operating between states – central tax and state tax. Lower tax burden will result in logistics centralization of companies that are planning to build large, modern warehouses and expand their fleet. DHL has already announced huge investment in India which would be 250 million euros.

The Indian e-commerce market is characterized by a large share of personal collection among delivery methods – it is still a norm. According to the Zencommerce platform, 43% of customers collected their parcels in person. Please keep in mind that delivery method is often associated with the payment method for the order. Personal receipt allows paying in cash and checking the quality of ordered goods before paying for them. Personal collection and payment are also selected when the seller does not offer convenient payment methods on the mobile version of the store. It is easier for users or customers to make payment through cash while receiving the order.

According to StatCounter data, mobile devices account for as much as 79% of traffic on the Indian Internet. The popularity of cash payments has also encouraged courier companies to accept this type of payment. Some online stores offer the option of paying the courier companies (COD) – cash payment in door-to-door delivery usually takes place at an additional cost, however there is no commission for card payment.

Ankur Goel from Zencommerce notes, that: Greater professionalization of online stores should guide salesmen to the automation of sales as much as possible. Convenient online payments and courier delivery allow you to finalize the order with less commitment from the seller, who does not have to issue the goods and accept cash payments.

A customer oriented store will also try to adjust the methods of delivery to customers, by giving the ability to choose the best method at the given moment. However, according to Zencommerce, the majority of online stores – 66%, offer only one way of delivery. Every fifth store offers two delivery methods, and 14% offer 3 methods. In this respect, Indian entrepreneurs still have a lot of things to catch up and perform.

Mail delivery is a rarity among the customers of online stores using the Zencommerce platform. Only 2% of buyers order through India Post. 4% of orders were made without paying for delivery. Free delivery usually depends on the price of order or number of ordered goods. Free delivery is a very important argument for the customer. According to data from the JDA and Centiro Customer Pulse Report Europe 2016, more than three-quarters of online shoppers in Europe are willing to exceed the minimum order thresholds, if this means they will get free delivery or collection. In recent times, the minimum order value with free delivery has been lowered even by a bigger player like Amazon itself.