How is XpressBees helping bring together the organized and unorganized logistics market?

While a business platform is a crucial element, companies require other tools to facilitate their businesses, especially logistics. For this, many Indian startups are offering tools for shipments and XpressBees is one of them. XpressBees provides logistics services to companies including Paytm, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Reliance. It further offers reverse logistics, real-time tracking and multiple payment collection options.

With CiOL, Amitava Saha, Founder and CEO, XpressBees talks about how the company is bringing together the logistic market. He also underlines how the company is dealing with challenges, growth and pandemic.

Do we see major transformation or digital innovation happening in the logistics sector as well?

With the increase in the growth of internet penetration, expansion of online grocery and omni-channel retailing there are enough demand and need for digital innovation. In terms of technology, there has been a significant increase in the investments to improve the overall infrastructure and offerings; technology has helped revamp the logistics sector in terms of reducing costs, proper space allocation, accelerating the speed of delivery of goods and efficient transportation system as per customer requirements nationwide. We believe in the coming years we will see a major emphasis on AI, IoT, Blockchain, RPA, and ML as these are critical in supporting the next phase of growth for the sector.

At XpressBees, we have invested heavily in creating tech-empowered solutions and AI solutions that offer customized logistics services ranging from collection and storage of goods to transportation and door-step delivery and predictive analytics. This has led to an increase in solving inefficiencies, streamlining operations and better customer relations. Shortly, we do see increased usage of sustainable delivery solutions as it will help manage traffic congestion and will extend the reach to the remotest parts of the country as these technologies are already market-ready and scalable.

Can technology bring together the organized and unorganized logistics market?

The logistic sector has realized that to scale up and to offer better stakeholder engagement, they need to have tech-driven integrated logistics solutions. From the factory floor to the retail shelf, innovation aided by technology will continue to inspire and provide a competitive edge to the sector. As we progress, we will see technology helping the organized sector to scale up pretty fast and will help them utilize the services and strengths of the unorganized sector in an efficient and complementary manner.

What are the major growth drivers for the logistics sector?

The logistics sector has witnessed strong growth supported by growth in India's manufacturing, retail, automotive and pharmaceutical sectors. According to a recent report by Research and Research, the logistics market in India will grow at a CAGR of 10.5% between 2019 and 2025. Key factors like government reforms, development plans, growing retail sales, rise in digital-savvy businesses and end-to-end automation have contributed significantly to uplift the logistics sector. Today, at XpressBees we handle close to 900,000 shipments per day and deliver to close to 18000 pin codes across the country. With the growing omnichannel distribution model and the tech advancement players like XpressBees stand to benefit as demand for the end-to-end supply chain solutions gains momentum.

What were the implications of COVID-19 on the sector at large?

COVID at large impacted economic growth and job creation alongside facilitating trade and commerce. The pandemic and the lockdown brought first- and last-mile transportation and intermodal movement of goods to a standstill. The logistics industry at large was severely impacted by the disruption. However, the domestic supply chain for essential goods, powered by aggressive e-commerce growth, kept the domestic warehousing and logistics sector afloat. The upsurge in essential supplies kept the momentum up and pushed the organizations to outsource their supply chain management. COVID also pushed the demand for warehouses, alternative locations, and emerging markets and an increase in usage of technology to accelerate the speed of delivery of goods.

What kind of employment challenge or opportunities do you foresee in the logistics sector?

The Logistics sector employs more than 40 million people in India at the moment and is expected to be the largest job creator in the country by 2022. With the rapid transformation of the logistics sector, the skilled workforce will become extremely critical, the logistics industry in India alone will need 25 -30 million additional skilled manpower in the next 10-years. From an employment perspective, the B2B and B2C segment both are huge and would need a talent pool which is aligned to needs of the new delivery economy.

The industry would need people with technical know-how as that will become an important part of the business environment going forward. At XpressBees we are growing aggressively and continue to invest in people and technology to meet the growing demand of the industry. From an ecosystem perspective, we support around 45,000 people in some capacity or the other. We have a team of 250 odd people, which are largely working on the technology front and we see these numbers go up substantially shortly.

How important do you think customer experience/customer service management is when it comes to the logistics sector?

The logistics industry is experiencing a change in customer preference, efficient execution and higher delivery expectations have become a critical part of the entire delivery chain. At XpressBees, we strongly focus on addressing the growing need of the customers. We have also heavily invested in creating a Unified App, developed internally, that combines the agile backend with a highly intuitive interface. It empowers our feet-on-street with real-time route optimization, paperless delivery, app-driven customer contact triggers, and feedback capture. All stages of the shipment life cycle are captured and relevant information is made available to concerned stakeholders at the tip of their fingers, enabling a timely and accurate flow of information and dynamic route optimization.

XpressBees has some negative reviews on the internet. What are you doing to improve the Customer Experience?

We have recently launched a series of high-impact initiatives to enhance the customer experience across the country. Some of these include a stronger thrust on fully-integrated systems like the new CRM (Customer Relationship Management ) and LMS (Learning Management System) to ensure faster, a real-time flow of information, training, and updates to customer interfacing teams like Contact Centre and highly-dispersed feet-on-street. There is also a strong focus on improving Process and Technology by enhancing performance on Critical to Quality (CTQ) metrics of Shipment Transit Time and Shipment Safety and Introduction of Customer Feedback on each transaction with an intent to empower customers to voice concerns in the right forum. We have also adopted an Environment, Safety, and Health policy to build a PAN India culture of zero tolerance to violations of hygiene and safety norms.