Thursday, August 21, 2008 Toral: Online shipping matures By Janette Toral Digital Filipino
ONE challenge self-publishers face is the delivery processing of book sales.
Yesterday, I was working on almost 40 deliveries for my new book, “Blogging from Home.” I find it quite expensive to visit the courier and ship one book with a tag price of P80 to P120.
Although online tracking features can be helpful and can keep customers at ease on the status of their shipment, it is no longer a novelty. Shipment tracking is now a “must” component of any courier service. It is no longer seen as a value-added or competitive advantage service as almost every provider offers it.
Last week, I discovered the service Xend at www.xend.com.ph. It allows entrepreneurs to create an account and have the shipment picked up on as-needed basis. Fees are lower compared to traditional couriers today.
While trying out Xend, Edward De Bono’s lateral thinking method comes to mind. Changes on the product level and its
marketing mix were the ones re-invented by Xend. If this will work well, I’ll be able to reduce shipping costs of future deliveries and the amount I charge customers.
Xend’s website offers traditional establishment the means to earn extra by coming up with a service center with no upfront cost. Should this service deliver or fail in the long run remains to be seen and will definitely write about it either way.
To use its online features, one must have processed a shipment through Xend before. It will be helpful if such barrier is removed. Instead, an account is created and credits can be pre-loaded - through bank deposit, credit card and Paypal - and deducted for every shipment processed. This allows the courier to earn from float while giving their customers the convenience of electronic payment. Of course, that can only work if services like this accept credit card and Paypal.
But one can also argue that services of providers like Xend are no longer new since there are other couriers who pick up from home and charge less compared to the leading players. I even have tried some of them.
The beauty of having an online shipping account is that it allows you to be in control. I won’t be surprised if this can be integrated in e-commerce sites later on. In addition, one can check a history of all transactions made. This reduces the need for one to keep on searching for information about every new shipment that has to be made for the same recipients.
A courier with a website also has a lot of potential as it can provide store shipment and become an active reseller of a client’s goods. This can be courier-initiated and at no cost to merchants. The courier can, of course, earn commissions.
Another opportunity is when the courier’s website provides information about a merchant’s products at a cost. It can also give incentive to existing clients who refer potential new users.
On the challenging side, using courier services—from big names to new players like Xend—requires a lot of trust. Shippers disclose a lot of information about their customers, including name, addresses and contact numbers. They also get to collect digital identity information whenever necessary (such as taking a photo via cellular phone).
It is important that data privacy practices of these organizations are well established and be made clear.
I have a lot of inputs on this subject as I have been shipping book orders since 2000. I find it partly disappointing that the services I’ve mentioned above are the same ideas that I’ve been telling people back then.
But little progress has been made up to now. However, I’m very hopeful and optimistic that services like Xend - should they grow fast enough - will force leading couriers to start hearing out small customers like me demanding for more friendlier and affordable services.
