No less than 5.96% in November and 54.58% in the first eleven months of the year. These are the projections of the Technological Center for Transport, Traffic and Road Safety of the National Technological University for the evolution of the National Logistics Costs Index, which is drawn up at the request of the Chamber of Logistics Operators (CEDOL).
It includes an interannual variation in the price of fuel that reaches almost 77% and an annual effective financial cost of 80%, according to the active rate witnessed by Banco Nación.By themselves, the numbers are already eloquent. The president of the Argentine Association of Logistics, Raúl Garreta, admits that urgent changes are required in this regard.
"Logistics must be more efficient to generate greater competitiveness, infrastructure must be modernized, regulations must be modified and the tax burden must be reduced, but inefficient internal processes must also be improved, with clear objectives, indicators, computer control points", he assures.
When it comes to distributing the purchases made by e-commerce, these costs are magnified, even above those exorbitant figures.
It is about taking the products not to a distribution center or to a more or less numerous set of shops, but door to door to the buyers' own homes with deliveries until the same day of the transaction.
With the aim of increasing the productivity of these operations, the new envíoPack platform enables retailers to save up to 35% in deals, starting with the setting up of a distribution strategy for the specific needs of their businesses.How? Centralizing the offer of some 25 logistics operators, among which are Andreani, Urbano or Andesmar. And the demand of more than 500 clients, mostly SMEs, although there are large companies such as Frávega, Megatone, Prüne and Juanita Jo.
Since the launch of the initiative, in fact, they have made about 200,000 shipments of products in the range of 1 to 1,000 kilos, as reported by the company.
"We are a B2B technology platform that connects the businesses that sell online with a very wide and varied logistics offer, through a single API," says Nur Malek Pascha, general manager of the firm he co-founded with Horacio Esteves and Daniel Battistelli. , through an initial investment of 100,000 dollars.
"We standardize and simplify processes so that, through technology, both businesses and logistics companies can speak a single language and be connected quickly and easily," completes the entrepreneur in dialogue with iProUP.
According to Makek Pascha, "the largest customers, such as Frávega, seek to rely on a technological solution that allows them to scale quickly and have greater transparency in the operation". And he adds: This applies especially to your third-party stock sale units. "The envíoPack directive explains that "medium-sized firms are not usually in a position to carry out this type of delivery service internally, since it is not their focus and it is very costly".
In this sense, he emphasizes that "it does not matter if they sell through Magento or VTEX, the interfaces are all developed".
How does it work? Each trade designs its online distribution network according to their needs, combining the use of different logistic providers, specialized by localities and provinces, but without the need to make integrations with each one.
The platform also allows the printing of labels and receipts and offers traceability and metrics for each shipment. It also centralizes the entire reconciliation of monthly invoicing. In this way, they manage to reduce shipping costs.
"We have competitive rates for volume, the added value for logistics operators is that they can access hundreds of small businesses, whose individual management can be complex and unprofitable." Through envíopack, they centralize technological and management processes, "the executive explains. .
Malek Pascha is the visible face of a business that plans to invoice 75 million pesos in 2018, with a transactional model based on the cost of shipping and the free use of the platform by retailers.Offer and demand
From Megatone, one of successful implementation cases, explain that the axes of its marketing strategy go through the development of omnichannel, its transformation into a marketplace of reference at national level and the optimization of user experience, through the next launch of a Progressive Web App (websites with app functionality) and a native app."From the logistical point of view, in addition to the option of instant withdrawal in the branch before online purchases, we are developing a priority delivery service, so that customers can receive them in an hour at home," says Javier Santi, its manager of E-Commerce.
In effect, the firm already attends 100% of home delivery of its sales via the Internet through the EnvíoPack platform.
"We use the most efficient logistics provider for each area of the country, so we do not only get rates that we could not access on our own, but we also get faster, and it also offers us the possibility of having better visibility and control over our shipments, improving the user experience ", emphasizes the executive.
On the other side of the counter, they also see clear benefits.
"The biggest obstacle to logging into an e-commerce client is integration because, in many cases, they do not have the money or the time it takes the IT department to do it. interesting ", reflects Karina Macario, commercial manager of the logistics operator Urbano, who has made some 6,000 shipments through the platform.
"For us, Envíopack is a strategic customer and, therefore, we offer a competitive rate, but the savings for businesses also originates in making operations more efficient and eliminating many hidden costs," he adds.The executive assures that the technology and the reduction of delivery times are the obsessions of the company when it comes to satisfying its customers.
Meanwhile, envíoPack announces that it is launching its services in Chile, with five logistics providers of the size of Correos de Chile and Chilexpress, as a replica of the model in Argentina.
"The arrival in the trans-Andean country is the first step of the expansion in Latin America, since we plan for 2019 to arrive in Peru and Mexico," concludes its general manager.