“Russia is the largest country in the world with the most undeveloped delivery structure,” complains Oskar Hartmann, co-owner of the KupiVip store. Large online stores - Holodilnik.ru, Ozon.ru - in addition to their own couriers and warehouses, have distribution centers in major cities. Ozon.ru clients, for example, receive books, phones and laptops at 12 delivery points in Samara, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Khabarovsk, Rostov, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok. Holodilnik.ru currently has distribution centers only in Moscow and St. Petersburg. As with payments, delivery should be as convenient, accessible and fast as possible.
Own delivery service
Natalya Kulakova, who recently opened an online store www.onovamnadom.ru, when choosing methods of delivering her goods, decided to acquire her own couriers. “Delivery of products is a very delicate thing. Only your own couriers can be forced, for example, not to place bags on the ground, to ensure that household chemicals and products are kept separately in the bag. Guarantee this in courier service outsourcing is impossible,” she explains her choice.
Pros: Monitoring and constant improvement of service quality. The operator from the delivery service in Kulakova’s store, after completing the order, always calls the client back with clarification: whether the order was delivered on time, whether the courier returned the full change, and what was not liked about his service.
Minuses: High staff turnover. “It is very difficult to find sane people, not thieves, for the position of courier. Eight hours of wandering around the city, sometimes in a crowded public transport, in the cold - it’s scary normal people“,” says Alena Salber, author of the book “How to Open an Online Store.”
Outsourced couriers
The delivery of goods can be entrusted to a company specializing in express delivery. The couriers themselves punch the receipt from the buyer, after which the money goes to the accounts of the logistics company, and from there to online stores. The commission is 1.5–3% of the cost of the delivery, Ivan Matveev, CEO of IM Logistics, a company specializing in this kind of services for online sellers, told Forbes.
Pros: No need to bother with accounting and staffing. “In theory, it is believed that outsourcing removes all problems from you and you can do business directly,” says the owner of the online children’s goods store www.101slon.ru Lyubov Kozyreva.
Minuses: At times of peak load, the outsourcing company cannot always fulfill its obligations. “We had a case where couriers fooled a client for a whole week, constantly delaying delivery. But we didn’t know about it. As a result, the person naturally refused the order,” recalls Kozyreva.
The logistics service with the most developed network of branches in the country remains Russian Post. With its help, you can send goods to any point in Russia and the world by cash on delivery. Terms and costs can be quickly calculated on the website. Russian Post has its own analogue of DHL - the service " EMS Post Russia", a courier company that, using the branch network of the parent company, delivers goods "from hand to hand". “EMS Russian Post” works faster than “Russian Post”, but its services are much more expensive.
Pros: Russian Post has 86 branches, about 42,000 postal facilities providing postal services throughout the territory Russian Federation, including all cities and rural settlements.
Minuses: Despite years of reform, queues at post offices are still common. In addition, the post office has a list of goods prohibited for shipment. These include, for example, “items that, by their nature or packaging, may pose a danger to postal workers, stain or damage other postal items and postal equipment." In addition, when using cash on delivery, the customer may simply not pick up the goods from the post office. Then the sender bears the costs not only for sending the goods to the client (with the scheme working, they are added to the cost of the order), but also for its return delivery. “We decided to send goods by cash on delivery only to verified customers,” says Lyubov Kozyreva, owner of www.101slon.ru.
Russian online stores mainly use 4-5 delivery methods. Which one to give preference to is usually decided by the buyer, who is given a choice. But also the owners trading platform can also set a specific delivery method. Statistics show that the majority of users choose self-pickup, but only if it is convenient for them. For example, they can pick up an order on the way somewhere, or the pickup point is located near a metro station that is on their way.
Other customers living in the same city where the store is located are ready to wait for courier delivery. Moreover, the majority choose free delivery.
Customers from other regions cannot come in person or choose courier delivery, so they have only 2 options: receive the order through Russian Post or using the services of a transport company that operates throughout the country.
In fact, this is not even delivery, but simply providing the buyer with the opportunity to pick up their order themselves. Pick-up points are usually organized in a warehouse with goods or in an office. Some private owners manage to arrange their home for pick-up, but this threatens that its owner will not be given peace and the house will turn into a walk-through yard.
Any online store can choose pickup, but when working with all localities in Russia, you should indicate that this method is available only for a specific city in which the warehouse or central office is located.
Express delivery
This delivery method provides 2 options:
- Creation of your own courier service.
- Cooperation with an outsourcing courier service.
The first point is the most effective and reliable, since you will have complete control over the activities of your employees. At the same time, this is also the most expensive option, because it will take a lot of money to train and maintain your own couriers.
The second point is not as good as the first, but it is quite suitable for small online stores, as it reduces courier delivery costs to a minimum.
Let's take a few examples third party companies, which provide courier delivery services to stores.
SDEK
Transport companies
The most common ones are EMS and DHL. Unlike local courier services, transport companies operate throughout the country and even abroad. Thus, if you plan to open a store with delivery throughout Russia or countries near and far abroad, you will be able to use the services of such companies or by mail.
The first option is much more expensive, but the delivery time is several times shorter. In addition, couriers of transport organizations deliver parcels directly to the addressee. There is no need to go to the post office, stand in line and waste your time.
The entire path of the goods from the point of departure to the point of delivery can be tracked online using a track code. This is convenient both for the administration of the online store and for the buyer, who will see where his order is now and what is happening with it.
This delivery method appeared quite recently, but has already attracted the attention of many online stores due to its low cost.
A parcel terminal is a special terminal that stores and issues parcels to customers. The size of the product is limited by the dimensions of the cell, so ordering a large TV or refrigerator and waiting for it to be delivered to the parcel terminal clearly does not make sense.
Services such as PickPoint and InPost send parcels to parcel lockers.
If your site was created using the 1C-UMI designer, you can add different methods delivery of goods: self-pickup, courier, transport company or Russian Post. We recommend because it is built into the checkout process, is taken into account when calculating the order amount, and is built into the order processing panel.
Many years of work in logistics, experience in managing my own transport company and logistics at the Parquet Hall company completely convinced me that only a specialized transportation company needs its own commercial transport. In all other cases, the problems and costs of having your own transport fleet are much greater than the advantages. Let's take a closer look at the process of outsourcing the delivery of goods to the buyer.
In this article you will read:
- How to outsource the organization of goods delivery
- Nuances and errors in the process of organizing the delivery of goods to the buyer
Organization of goods delivery to the buyer, when abandoning his own fleet of vehicles, is increasingly being used in the world of commerce. I think there is only one advantage in own organization of delivery of goods: the car is at the owner’s disposal around the clock and is ready to move in any direction. But with good organization of outsourcing delivery, all risks can be reduced to almost zero and costs can be minimized.
Best article of the month
We have prepared an article that:
✩will show how tracking programs help protect a company from theft;
✩will tell you what managers actually do in work time;
✩explains how to organize surveillance of employees so as not to break the law.
With the help of the proposed tools, you will be able to control managers without reducing motivation.
Assess costs and burdens
The owner of the transport bears all the risks and full responsibility of delivery outsourcing - for the safety of the cargo, the vehicle, for the consequences of road accidents, the health of drivers and much more. When the transport belongs to the company, it must take care of insurance, taxes, parking, washing, disinfection of cars (if they carry products), maintenance etc. It is necessary to organize a pre-trip medical examination of drivers and check the technical condition of vehicles.
And for this you need to either hire medical worker and mechanics, or take responsibility also for non-compliance with Russian legislation. A separate complexity is an accident with harm to health and death of people and a chain of consequences: legal costs, compensation to the injured party (treatment of victims, financial compensation in case of death, repair of a vehicle in case of exceeding the limit under compulsory motor liability insurance, compensation for loss of goods or marketable type of cargo) and similar out-of-pocket expenses (payment for treatment of the driver, repair of the vehicle and compensation for the cost of damage caused to the cargo owner). Plus a simple car until all the circumstances of the accident are clarified.
- Logistics for an online store: 5 main mistakes
During intercity transportation, the owner of the vehicle or his employee must look for clients to load the vehicle back. He is the one who worries about minimizing the empty mileage of the car. Resolving all these issues takes a lot of time, effort, nerves and ultimately results in serious costs for the company.
Perhaps that is why the transport services of such giants as IKEA, McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, etc. are outsourced. We also followed this path, paying, however, great attention properly building relationships with transport companies, drivers and monitoring their activities. After all, it is the driver who communicates with the end buyer and transfers the cargo to him.
Selecting a contractor to organize delivery of goods to the buyer
To organize the delivery of goods to the buyer in Moscow and the Moscow region, I prefer to hire drivers with their own vehicle. I would be happy to work with individuals on intercity transportation, but then loading them on the way back becomes my concern (otherwise I will have to pay for the trip in both directions), and transport companies - legal entities - resolve these issues on their own.
The requirements for the transport company with which we begin cooperation are simple: work on the market for more than three years and the presence of funds on the organization’s balance sheet (documentary confirmation is required). It is advisable that the company have an insurance policy for the transportation of goods.
There are more requirements for the driver with whom the company is going to enter into a contract for the transportation of goods. For example, the car must be his property (working by proxy is highly undesirable) and, of course, all documents for it must be in order. Our company's security service carries out a standard verification procedure, makes a number of requests to the traffic police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and we begin to cooperate.
We have big company, making about 1,000 deliveries per month during the season, or about 40 per day. For this volume of work, ten permanent machines are enough for us. And two drivers with their cars are in reserve. Negotiating cooperation with a large number of drivers at the same time is dangerous. That is, reserves should be no more than 20% of the total required quantity. Otherwise, if their services are not in demand for a long time, they find other options for earning money and may let them down at the right time.
Payment for a driver with a personal car is piecemeal, for each trip separately, depending on the mileage and weight of the cargo. We pay well, because almost all responsibility for delivery lies with the driver.
Organization of the goods delivery process
Our transport service has two dispatchers. Their task is to accept orders (take a cast for the next day) from the managers of all our stores (table). Applications for the next day close at 6:00 p.m. Dispatchers are engaged in routing, drawing up the order of deliveries, taking into account many factors: the carrying capacity of the vehicles, the parameters of each cargo, the geography of the destination, traffic congestion. And from 18.00 to 20.00 they call drivers, each of whom makes four to five deliveries the next day.
In the morning, the driver arrives at the warehouse, receives a list of goods and contacts of consignee clients. The driver's responsibilities include, firstly, calling all clients to remind them that delivery will take place today and to receive confirmation that they are waiting for him. The fact is that the client does not always order delivery on the day immediately following the day of purchase. And often he simply forgets that he must be at the address and wait for the cargo. And according to our internal regulations, if the cost of the cargo exceeds 50,000 rubles, we have the right to transfer it only to the person whose details are indicated in the purchase documents.
The driver is then loaded into the warehouse. He is the one who monitors the loading. After all, it is very important that the cargo is placed in the body according to the sequence of the route and that what is intended for the first recipient does not end up in the depths of the body, and vice versa. Drivers do not participate in unloading goods from the client, because they do not have the right to leave the car - they are financially responsible persons. If necessary, at the request of the client, the driver is accompanied by one or two loaders. Loader services are paid.
An hour before the delivery time, the driver calls the client again. If there is a delay, I must notify you.
And the final stage of each delivery and an important point in the driver’s responsibilities is to receive a signed invoice from the client, which he must submit to the transport department the next day.
Our company provides drivers with telephone communications and special clothing. About once a year he updates the awnings on their trucks free of charge. A new awning is not a cheap pleasure (40–60 thousand rubles). But our drivers drive with awnings with company advertising on them. This is one of the conditions for cooperation with employees with personal transport.
Table. Stages of organizing cargo transportation using the example of the Parquet Hall company
|
Dispatchers |
Accepting applications the next day |
Accepting applications for the next day, routing delivery taking into account the carrying capacity of vehicles, load of routes |
Distribution of requests for next day delivery |
|
Customers |
Formation of requests, transfer of orders to the dispatcher |
Formation of requests, transfer of the order to the dispatcher |
Receiving orders, signing documents |
|
Drivers |
Arrival at the warehouse, transfer of reporting documents for the delivery of orders from the previous day |
Receiving cargo and customer contacts. Loading, calls to recipients confirming that the order is pending. |
Delivery (four to five orders per day), unloading, signing documents |
Service control
The Parquet Hall call center periodically selectively calls 10–20% of clients and asks a number of questions regarding the service, including delivery: “Did the driver serve you politely?”, “Did the loader put on shoe covers?”, “How neat was he?” appearance our employees? etc.
- Personnel outsourcing: advantages and risks for companies
The sales divisions (where customer complaints are usually received) provide monthly assessments for the work of the warehouse and transport department. If there were comments regarding delivery, the dispatcher will not receive a bonus. And next time he won’t allow a puncture. But we almost never have such cases.
It is very rare that a driver does not go to work. (Naturally, in this case we terminate the contract with him.) If this happens, it happens in December and not with permanent employees, but with those whom we hire in addition to the usual 10–12 drivers. And the absenteeism is due to the fact that someone offered more for the flight than our company. Drivers make excuses by saying that they earn money one month a year - in December.
Agreement
Each transport company prefers its own contract for freight forwarding services. The difference usually lies in what exactly is written in the clauses on responsibility for the safety and placement of cargo in the vehicle.
Referring to the statute road transport, I try to insist that either the drivers (if they are private) or the company are responsible.
I also recommend paying attention to the points that relate to fines for downtime and standard loading and unloading time. Legal entities strive to increase the amount of the fine per hour of downtime. On the one hand, every effort must be made to ensure timely unloading, and on the other hand, it is necessary to indicate in the contract how possible longer time for loading and unloading without penalty.
Tariff tracks
Before hiring a carrier for long-distance freight delivery, you need to get a clear understanding of the rates that apply today. Then you can bargain intelligently and reasonably. Otherwise, transport companies will impose inflated tariffs. U individuals the prices are, of course, lower, especially if you find a driver who, after delivering the cargo, goes home.
There are many nuances. For example, a trip on the route Moscow - St. Petersburg is half the price of a flight in the opposite direction (figure). And before the New Year you can find a car either by double rate, or half the price of usual (those who are in a hurry to go home for the holiday will agree). However, in December all intercity transportation becomes more expensive by 20–30%. And in the spring, load capacity restrictions are introduced on many routes, which must be remembered in advance in order to take action in time.
Alexander Karabanov,
Head of Logistics Department, Parquet Hall
Alexander Karabanov Graduated from the Russian Economic Academy named after. G. V. Plekhanov. In 2009, he headed the logistics department of the Parquet Hall company, before which he headed the logistics department of Ingri Flooring Technologi. Specialist in the field of purchasing and inventory management and reducing company costs, organizing warehouse logistics, transport logistics, etc.
"Parquet Hall" sells products from global manufacturers of floor coverings, has its own brands and production. On the Russian market - 17 years. Retail commercial network- 38 stores in 13 cities of Russia. Official website - www.parquet-hall.ru
Some 5-7 years ago this issue did not cause so many difficulties - there were few ways to deliver goods from online stores - the constant Russian Post, a couple of transport companies and courier services. Now there are more than a hundred companies on the Russian market that carry everything from postcards to cars. They promise to deliver the goods to the client even on December 31st in the evening. It can be difficult to figure out which of them delivers goods and which causes trouble for business. This article will help you.
There are only four main types for organizing delivery in an online store in Russia. This:
Delivery by Russian Post
Due to the speed of delivery, Russian Post is called the “turtle”, but its logo is still present in many online stores. Because she has low prices and it delivers parcels even to villages with a population of 200 people, which means it remains the most popular method of delivering goods across Russia.
The disadvantage of this method is speed, but even here technology does not stand still - postal employees do a lot of things to automate processes and serve customers faster.
In June 2016, Russian Post developed a special service for delivery from online stores - https://otpravka.pochta.ru. For now, the service operates only in Moscow. It allows:
Automate the preparation of documents for parcels.
Using your API (program code), integrate services into your website.
On the website, show the buyer the current cost of postal delivery from the online store.
To start using the service, you need to register on the website and submit an application. After verification, the service will be connected to your store. You won't need to fill out stacks of shipping documents at the post office. All you need to do is print out the completed form, stick it on the parcel and take it to the department. In addition, the site has a function to call a courier online, so you don’t have to leave the office at all and stay on task.
Pickup delivery
The good thing about the self-pickup delivery method is that the buyer does not have to wait for couriers, who often arrive at a different time than agreed upon.
There are two ways to arrange pick-up delivery:
Issue goods at your warehouse or office;
Use the pick-up point of one of the delivery services or TC (transport company). The cost of one parcel in such companies varies from 50 to 100 rubles.
How to organize pickup for an online store on your own:step-by-step algorithm
Pickup from your office is suitable if you are selling a product that needs to be tested before purchasing - clothing, shoes, household appliances.
Step 1 - choose a room. Choose a warehouse or office in the central part of the city, in a passable place, for example, mall to make it convenient for customers to pick up goods. To begin with, you will need a room with an area of 20-30 square meters.
Step 2 - set up a pick-up point. For this, 30 thousand rubles is enough. You will spend them on a computer with the Internet, cash machine, shelves for storing goods, furniture for employees, a sign at the entrance.
Step 3 - make a display case with goods. If you have organized delivery from an online store through your pick-up point, offer accessories for the goods and thereby increase the average check.
According to statistics, self-pickup delivery is chosen when purchasing inexpensive goods when paying for courier delivery is pointless. To prevent your profits from falling, offer something else in addition to your main product. To do this, install a display case with accessories in your office.
Step 4 - Hire an honest employee. To issue goods, hire a person with good characteristics. The fact is that the salary of an operator for issuing orders usually does not exceed 30 thousand rubles, even for major cities. Therefore, if an employee turns out to be dishonest, he will be tempted to steal goods that are worth more than his salary.
Step 5 - declare your own pickup point. Write about it on the website, on advertising brochures, on business cards. On the website, explain to customers what it means to pick up goods in an online store and what its advantages are. Take photographs of the sign and display of goods that can be purchased on site. This will increase customer confidence and set you apart from your competitors.
Understanding what self-pickup in an online store is and what its pitfalls are comes with experience. Thus, store owners note that when choosing this type of delivery, many customers do not pick up the goods.
If you have your own pick-up point, organize a system for calling customers or sending SMS reminders to pick up the order. If you use a third-party delivery service for pickup, make sure they notify the customer themselves.
Courier delivery
Today, almost all residents of large cities who have at least once purchased something via the Internet know how courier delivery is carried out in online stores. By choosing this method, you save the buyer’s time, because the courier comes to the client’s home or work, having previously agreed on the time of the visit.
In addition, almost all types of courier delivery involve testing the goods before payment - trying on clothes, checking the operation of equipment, etc.
An online store can carry out courier delivery in two ways: hire your own courier or use the services of a courier service.
Advantages of your own courier delivery
1. The method of delivering goods from an online store by your own courier is more flexible compared to the services of third-party courier services. The courier adapts to your customer, and not to the schedule of the company where he works. If necessary, he will deliver the goods after hours or change the route to pick up an order that you received at 19.00, but want to deliver to the client on the same day.
2. If the client transfers payment for the order through a courier, then you receive the money immediately, rather than waiting several days for the courier company to transfer it to you.
3. By hiring your own courier, you work with one trusted person. If you find “your” employee and work together, you don’t have to worry about the safety of your parcels and delivery times. When contacting a courier service, couriers may change, and along with them, the attitude to work will change, which depends on the individual.
4. Your courier knows your product well, unlike the courier service employee. At least you can train him so he can answer simple questions buyer and help him understand the product. He is the face of your store, your advertising and your additional tool sales
It’s worth thinking about how to organize your delivery service when you are able to maintain it and when you have a flow of orders from 5-10 per day. Beginning entrepreneurs are better off outsourcing this process.
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Advantages of a courier company for an online store
1. You pay for courier services only when you need him, and do not have a person on staff who goes out to deliver orders from time to time.
2. Arranging delivery from the online store to other cities is possible only with the help of courier services. They have enough resources to quickly and inexpensively transport your goods to another region.
3. It’s easier to cope with peak loads, for example, before the New Year. Courier companies usually have a large staff and you can take advantage of these additional resources if necessary.
4. If the package is lost or damaged due to the fault of the courier, the courier service is responsible for this. If the goods are damaged due to the fault of your courier, you will most likely bear the losses.
5. You can order urgent delivery from a courier company if, for example, the client needs to receive the goods in two hours. If there is one full-time courier who this moment busy with other orders, you will not be able to provide such a service.
6. You can read about how outsourced courier delivery works in reviews, there are many of them on the Internet. Based on reviews, it is easy to determine the strengths and weak sides company, and then choose the one that suits you. When organizing your delivery service, you don’t know what kind of difficulties you will encounter.
The cost of a courier delivery service within the city is 200-250 rubles per parcel. Speed – from several hours to several days. As a rule, courier services have different tariffs - the more deliveries you arrange, the cheaper each of them costs.
Organizing a delivery service for an online store necessarily involves delivery by courier, regardless of what region you are in and what you sell.
Delivery by transport companies
The services of transport companies for online stores are relevant when you need to send goods to another city. This is convenient for large and expensive cargo if you do not trust Russian Post to transport them. The essence of this method is as follows:
The buyer makes an advance payment for the goods.
You send the cargo to the warehouse of the transport company or order courier delivery to your door (this depends on the wishes of the client).
The recipient picks up the goods and, if necessary, makes the remaining payment.
If you choose which is better, the post office or the transport company, then the second option has more advantages: the speed is higher, the attitude towards parcels is more careful, and there are more conveniences for the recipient and the sender. However, transport companies have higher prices and branches of the transport company you have chosen will not be in all cities.
So, how to organize delivery and how to send goods from an online store? Self-respecting stores offer several methods of delivering goods:
By courier - for those who need it faster and who are nearby.
Pickup - for those who do not want to overpay and buy goods for a small amount.
Russian Post – to places where couriers do not work.
By a transport company - for those who are not satisfied with the mail deadlines.
To make it easier for you to choose the best delivery methods in Russia and the CIS, we have prepared a selection of 15 delivery services with reviews and descriptions.
Options for delivery of goods and delivery services in Russia and CIS
http://boxberry.ru is a market leader with branches in 333 cities of Russia. More than one and a half thousand online stores use the services of the Boxberry goods delivery company.
The store owner needs to register on the website and submit delivery requests via Personal Area. Each client is provided with a personal manager. You can bring your orders to the Boxberry warehouse or call a courier who will pick up the goods. The advantage of this method of delivering goods is the ability to track the location of the parcel on the website and an online calculator to calculate the cost.
Review of Boxberry on the Internet
http://www.edostavka.ru is one of the best delivery services for goods from online stores, known as SDEK, on the market since 2000. There are 450 delivery points in 90 cities of Russia. SDEK transports goods from abroad, including from China, and offers an urgent delivery service on the same day.
For owners of online stores who have entered into an agreement, SDEK gives discounts from 3 to 10%, prints invoices, calls recipients to clarify delivery time, works on weekends and after 18.00 and provides many other additional services.
Review of SDEK on the Internet
http://www.shop-logistics.ru - the delivery service "Shop-Logistics" organizes delivery for online stores in 5,000 cities in Russia. According to the administration, 95% of parcels are delivered without problems. Cash on delivery payments from buyers are transferred within 1-3 days.
You can install an online calculator from Shop Logistics on your website. With its help, users will calculate the exact price themselves. Delivery cost - from 50 rubles per parcel. Most pick-up points are equipped with fitting rooms for those purchasing clothes.
Review of Shop-logistics on the Internet
http://www.topdelivery.ru is a Russian network for delivering letters and parcels. Delivery is carried out by courier or to a pick-up point. Deadlines for Moscow and St. Petersburg – 1 day. Top Delivery operates in 1,800 localities in Russia and has more than 200 pick-up points.
According to employees, the Topdelivery company copes even with the New Year’s peak of work. Calls recipients and sends them messages, gives them the opportunity to make a partial return, and allows them to test the product for 15 minutes before paying.
Review of Topdelivery on the Internet
http://post.reworker.ru – the Reworker company deals not only with the delivery of goods for online stores. It also provides services for order processing, storage, and parcel labeling. Works with Russian Post and the most common courier services - Boxberry, CDEK, DPD and others. All you need is to conclude an agreement, connect the system to your store and leave requests. Couriers will pick up the goods from you and send them through the desired delivery service on the same day.
The cost of delivery from online stores to Reworker is from 24 rubles. Sends goods from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Simplifies difficult work with Russian Post - deals with the preparation and packaging of parcels, takes care of paperwork, provides a minimum commission when sending cash on delivery from the client.
Review of Reworker on the Internet
http://getparcel.ru is a reactive delivery service to online stores (as they call themselves), which delivers goods within the Moscow Ring Road in three hours. Unfortunately, for now they don’t travel further than the Moscow Ring Road. The GetParcel delivery service cooperates with forty partners or 1,600 couriers in Moscow. Couriers undergo special training, each has a cash register and a terminal for card payments.
The Getparcel service has its own API for installing a widget on your website if you have a large online store, and a Personal Account for sending orders if sales volumes are still small.
http://allegro-plus.rf is a courier service that specializes in the delivery of correspondence and parcels throughout Moscow. It also works with online stores and offers discounts to regular customers. Allegro-Plus picks up shipments from your warehouse free of charge, packs the parcels and calls recipients to coordinate delivery time with them.
The courier service “Allegro-plus.rf” enters into an agreement with online stores. Each client is assigned a manager who will tell you how to organize delivery to the buyer through your Personal Account, how to print accompanying documents and maintain your address book.
Review of Allegro-plus on the Internet
http://www.latella-post.ru - a courier service founded in 2007, delivering goods from online stores in Moscow, Russia and abroad. The Latella delivery service has 90 branches throughout Russia, as well as representative offices in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
The service has a fleet of 50 vehicles at its disposal; it books about 3,000 flights per month for the delivery of goods. One of the disadvantages of the “Latella” delivery service is that couriers work only on weekdays and during business hours from 9 to 18.
http://www.doklienta.ru is a transport company that works with cash on delivery. TC "Doklienta" delivers cargo weighing up to 10 tons, picks up goods from the supplier, transfers cash on delivery, allows you to try on clothes, assemble furniture and check household appliances before paying.
The delivery times for goods from the online store are clearly shown, there is an online calculator for calculating the cost of delivery in Moscow, to any city in Russia or the CIS. Doklienta.ru's prices depend on the number of deliveries per month and the weight of the parcel. On average, delivery of one parcel up to a kilogram costs 25 rubles/
Review of Doklienta on the Internet
http://courier-fakel.ru – the Fakel courier service has been operating since 2011, delivering goods throughout Moscow and Russia. Delivery by courier to your home or to a pick-up service in Moscow is possible. Works without delay - undertakes to return the delivery cost if the courier is late by more than an hour.
“Fakel” assigns a personal manager to each online store, returns money from cash on delivery within three days, can store your goods in its warehouse, and allows you to monitor the status of your order online.
https://www.hermesrussia.ru is a company delivering goods from the Hermes online store on the market for more than forty years. Offers delivery throughout Russia with German precision. The company's head office is located in Hamburg. In Russia there are about 600 distribution points in 155 cities.
The Hermes delivery service notifies recipients of the arrival of the cargo by phone or SMS, arranges insurance for all cargo, and coordinates the express return of goods back to the online store. Estimated delivery time in Moscow and the region is 1-2 days.
Review of Hermesrussia on the Internet
http://www.dimex.ws - delivery service for online stores, operating since 1998. Delivers cargo to more than 9,000 cities in Russia and the CIS. There is an option for delivery of goods the next morning (express) and delivery of groupage cargo, as well as packaging of goods with several degrees of protection.
The Dimex courier service provides additional services: delivery outside business hours, change of recipient's address, delivery with an inventory of the contents, declared value, delivery by a certain time.
http://www.ecp-logistic.ru is a courier delivery method through Russian Post or our own pick-up points. “ECP-Logistic” operates in Moscow and the regions. They pick up shipments from your warehouse for free, change the address or full name of the recipient for free, help you install your API in the online store, and provide you with a Personal Account with everything you need.
The ESP-Logistic delivery service gives a 10% discount on delivery from online stores in the first month of service, and does not increase prices for services if you need to deliver goods on weekends. The maximum weight of a shipment is 15 kg.
Review of Ecp-logistic on the Internet
http://index-express.ru - professional delivery of goods and correspondence. IndexExpress offers online stores the organization of delivery of goods to pickup points in Moscow (9 pickup points) and St. Petersburg (24 pickup points). Upon request, it can pick up cargo from your supplier and store it in its warehouse.
The Index-express courier service sends messages to recipients at all stages of delivery. Offers a convenient tariff with a fixed cost of 250 rubles, regardless of the number of deliveries.
http://cse.ru - the transport company “CourierServiceExpress” began operating in 1997. Today, there are more than 150 branches of the courier service throughout Russia. There are more than 170 people on staff.
KSE offers online stores convenient delivery options throughout Russia, storage and packaging of goods, well-established customer service and 10,000 square meters of warehouse space.
How to organize delivery in an online store - tips
1. If the average check amount in your store is 1000 rubles, be sure to make delivery by pickup. The client is unlikely to want to pay another 250-300 for delivery by courier when the price of the goods is 1000 rubles.
2. By concluding a contract for courier or transport services for an online store, read it carefully. What happens if the courier loses the package or doesn’t meet the deadline, does the manager call the recipients or send them an SMS, how long does it take to transfer money for the goods to you, what if the buyer does not pick up the order - these and other conditions must be clearly stated.
3. Make your store available for express same-day or within-hour delivery. According to a survey, 36% of potential buyers do not place an order due to long delivery times. Don't lose these clients.
4. Mostly customers are ready to pick up orders in the evening, after work. Peak time - 19.00-22.00. Keep this in mind when planning your courier or pickup schedule.
Choosing the best goods delivery companies: check list
Experienced online store owners advise choosing a courier service that:
Has many branches in Moscow and St. Petersburg. According to statistics, 70-90% of online store buyers are Muscovites and residents of the northern capital.
Withstands peak New Year's load. Many companies miss delivery deadlines for goods from an online store during the holidays and damage the profits and reputation of the owners.
Can pick up packages after 19.00, and not in the middle of the working day. This is convenient for you and is necessary so that you can give the courier all the orders that have accumulated during the day.
It has its own API (code for posting on the site) so that you can manage the delivery of your online store from the admin panel. This is especially true for large trading platforms.
Returns packages that the buyer did not pick up free of charge. No later than a week later and indicating the reason for the return.
When choosing a courier service, of course, you need to rely on reviews. But don’t be surprised if you see a lot of negative reviews of the best delivery services for online stores in Russia. Remember that good things are rarely written about because they go without saying. But people willingly talk about unsuccessful collaboration experiences through all channels.
Fast delivery and happy customers!
The number of online stores is growing steadily every year. Why do people increasingly prefer shopping online? Firstly, in most cases, goods in online stores are cheaper than similar ones in regular stores. Secondly, shopping online is a significant saving of time and effort. The only negative is that you cannot view and touch the product online before purchasing. But apparently, for few people this minus is a significant drawback.
According to statistics, about 30% of the working population in Russia are regular online shoppers. And in other CIS countries this figure is approximately the same. Nowadays you can buy almost anything on the Internet. But the most purchased product categories, as before, are Appliances, small electronics, clothing, shoes, accessories, sports, home and leisure products.
The process of delivering goods from an online store to the buyer
1. The client makes an order.
Anyone who has ever ordered goods from online stores knows that this is quite easy to do. Just a couple of clicks and you already see the message “order received.” What happens after this?
2. The application goes to the store managers.
The online store database receives information about the order: the buyer’s name, product name, desired delivery option and other data that the buyer would prefer to indicate in his application. After this, the store manager sends an order confirmation email to the customer's email and then calls him back for final confirmation of the order. After this, the manager forms a request to complete the order and deliver it to the client. Some online stores (usually small ones) carry out packaging and delivery themselves; large stores transfer these responsibilities to outsourcing logistics companies.
3. The order is completed at the warehouse.
Warehouse employees receive a request to complete the order. They check that the product is not defective or damaged. Select suitable packaging for it - these can be cardboard boxes different sizes, plastic tight bags. Easily breakable goods are additionally packaged in protective film (the well-known bags with “pimples”). When the shipment is fully packaged, shipping documentation is drawn up. Labels or stickers are attached to the outside of the package, which contain information about the product, sender and recipient.
A small digression. It is at this stage that mistakes are often made, as a result of which the client receives something completely different from what he ordered. And such cases are not uncommon. If a customer ordered, for example, a soccer ball, and instead they brought him a mini body massager, he is unlikely to say “well, I’ll play football with the massager.” The customer, of course, will call the store and demand that they deliver to him what he originally ordered. And the online store will carry out repeated delivery at its own expense. Why do such unpleasant situations arise? The manager who compiled the order for the kit could have made a mistake. As a rule, all products in online stores are coded, and the slightest typo in one letter or number can mean a completely different product. A mistake could have been made at the warehouse, by packing in the shipment the wrong item that was listed in the documentation.
Sometimes it is very difficult to find the culprits in such situations. And it also happens that, according to all the documents, the “correct” product was sent to the client, but he received a completely different one. It is unknown where the sent product went and at what stage it was replaced with another product. In any case, the online store will need to incur some losses and still deliver to the buyer the goods he ordered. And in order not to lose your reputation in the eyes of the client, you also need to provide him with a small gift as an apology for the inconvenience caused. Usually this is either a discount on subsequent purchases, or some small item from the store’s assortment.
4. The goods are sent on their way.
The packaged goods are transferred to the transport or postal company. There it can be additionally packaged if there is such a need (for example, if the product is not sufficiently protected from possible damage during transportation). Are being issued Required documents and the goods are finally sent to the customer.
The choice of the type of transport on which the order will be delivered depends on how quickly it reaches the recipient and how much money will be spent on the transportation process. Of course, it is important for an online store that all goods are delivered to customers as quickly as possible, but it is equally important to save on transport costs. It all depends on the territory within which the online store operates. If goods need to be transported over a distance of no more than 500 kilometers, then cars are usually used, if more than 500 kilometers, then trains or planes.
5. The goods arrive at the post office.
The goods are delivered to the post office in the customer’s locality, after which he receives a delivery notification. The client can only pick up the goods. Some online stores prefer to take full prepayment for the goods and only then ship them. Others take only part of the advance payment, or do not take it at all. In the first case, the store does not risk that the customer changes his mind about buying the product when it has already arrived in the customer’s locality and is at the post office. But in other cases, such situations often arise. We often make purchases on the Internet under the influence of emotional impulses, and after a day or two we realize that in principle we do not need this product. And then the order remains in the post office until the maximum waiting period has passed and it is sent back to the warehouse of the online store.
The issue of payment for delivery, as a rule, remains with the transport or logistics company that organizes the transportation. Most often, the delivery amount depends on the size of the goods and the distance to which it needs to be transported. Large online stores may have their own courier service. Some charge a fixed amount for delivery, while others also calculate it based on the size of the product and the distance.
If the client wants to deliver the order directly to his home, local delivery services are included in the work. If the store is small, it is unlikely that it will have its own courier service in each city.
How to return goods back to the store
Nowadays, most online stores provide customers with the opportunity to return purchased goods if they do not fit or have any defects. The customer can return the product and receive his money back for the purchase. But delivery in such cases is most often paid for by the client himself. If the buyer simply did not come to buy the goods from the post office, then for the online store each such situation entails significant costs. The goods must be sent back to the store, while paying the transport company for the services. At the warehouse, it needs to be unpacked and this item must be entered into the warehouse documentation again.
Depending on the specifics of the product, sometimes an assessment is required regarding its suitability for further use, because during long transportation the product can be significantly damaged or lose some of its important properties. And the costs of such assessments again fall on the shoulders of the online store.
The problem of returning goods is one of the most acute for most online stores. To reduce the rate of returns, you need to constantly improve the quality of your work at all stages - from negotiations with the client to organizing delivery of goods to your home. Of course, the quality of the product itself also plays a huge role, because you cannot touch the product through a monitor or try it in action. According to one of the logical companies that transports goods from online stores - “Idea Logic” - a decrease in the number of returns by only 3-5% will entail an increase in profits by as much as 20-30%. and allow for as few returns as possible!