Everything thing you need to know about eCommerce logistics

Speaker A: Foreign.

Speaker B: Today we have Krishma Tangri who is the head of Final Mile Logistics Europe of um, a reputable fitness brand. Hey Krishna, welcome to our show.

Speaker A: Hey, thanks very much for having me.

Speaker B: So Krishna, before we jump into um, you know, thick of things, can you let us into a bit about your journey until now, how you got into logistics and what has been your journey like until now?

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So um, I started my career around my 20s. After graduating university, um, I majored in psychology and so with it being a very kind of open subject, wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go with my career. Um, so I ended up working for a very reputable supermarket retailer um, in the UK business and so took on a role in operations which I absolutely loved. Um, got loads of really good experience and then had the opportunity to move across into logistics and showcase some of that experience. Um, so that was my first real experience of um, what it meant to work in a distribution center, ah, all of the different operations that take place before something reaches a store. Um, and then from that I became really involved and really loved the idea of working in that environment. So I then took my next career step into a different industry, so fitness, um, and then was very lucky and fortunate enough to get an opportunity to lead the uh, Final Mile operation.

Speaker B: Amazing. Awesome. Uh, so as you might know, logistics is a huge part of E commerce business and it's the most challenging part for any E commerce business. How important do you think logistics are? The role of logistics is for any E commerce business, especially now?

Speaker A: Great question. Um, I think logistics is from my experience, the bottleneck of any business. So uh, from an E commerce perspective, the sales and the drive and how much traction you can get into the business is really important and shouldn't be underestimated. But ultimately no matter how much demand you get into the business, if you can't fulfill it and you can't fulfill it in a way that meets your customers expectations, then the business is really going to struggle with profitability. Um, there's also a large cost base that's associated with logistics as well. So um, the more you obviously sell and therefore the more you fulfill, the more there's an impact on how you are able to be more efficient with your delivery operations. So um, I'm a little bit biased because I work in logistics and I love it. But I would say it's a bottleneck for a lot of businesses. But it's also a massive opportunity and if you can get it right and you can get that customer experience and that end to End process running efficiently, then you set up a really strong business that can then start to withstand higher demands and operate at scale.

Speaker B: Absolutely. And um, I mean you are in logistics so logistics comes very easily for you. But a lot of E commerce business owners struggle when it comes to actually, you know, drafting a plan. As far as shipping and fulfill fulfillment is concerned, uh, how do you think they should go about planning uh, their shipping and fulfillment operations?

Speaker A: Great question. I think quite often where I've seen um, businesses potentially take a wrong route is over complicating. I think my process has always been very simple and very end to end. So from the moment that order hits, um, we take on that sale and we're then responsible for fulfilling it. What is really important is to understand what that end to end journey looks like. So I think really it's about ascertaining what do our customers expect? Are we delivering a product that um, needs to be delivered within one day or actually are we delivering a product that customers would be happy and reasonable for it to take a little bit longer? Once you have that time frame then I think what's really important is to understand what the process is. So for example, is this a product that needs handling when it comes in uh, to your distribution center, does uh, it need to be built? Does it need to be separated? Um, is it quite difficult to manage? How do we make those areas a little bit more efficient and simple and then how else does it touch? So following the business route and following the route of that product end to end will help you to identify at uh, how much you need to touch that product and what your customer expectations are. So my advice would always be it's very easy to get clouded with. We need to remember to do this, we need to label here. But actually taking a very simple approach to look at end to end of that product, what you might find is that you might have two separate processes that you could start to bring into one. So instead of just touching the product and moving it, we could label it at the same time. So you then start to shorten that process. That would be my advice optimizing um,

Speaker B: as much as possible. So when we speak with e commerce businesses about logistics, one thing that keeps coming up is you know, customer expectation by customers. I mean the end user expectation is sky high because of the expectation set by Amazon. Right. Amazon sets these unbelievable standards when it comes to delivery. Same day delivery, one day delivery, two day delivery. And um, other E commerce non Amazon e commerce businesses are struggling, playing catch up. Um, for these customer expectations uh, what are your suggestions to uh, these E commerce businesses and fulfilling their customer expectations in terms of delivery experience?

Speaker A: I think it's a great question and I think Amazon are absolute giants. I mean they nail it when it comes to that customer experience. I have a prime membership, I'm a massive fan. Um, but you're absolutely right in that it changes the landscape within which people now expect other businesses to be able to deliver same day, next day at uh, a relatively low cost, if any. Um, so my advice to that would be to really understand your products and test things. So, um, are you likely to lose a customer if your delivery, uh, expectation moves from three days to five days? Does it make a difference if it's one day or seven days? And the only way I think you can really understand that is by conducting focus groups, by talking to business experts and to also trial it. So if you had two geographies and you were offering seven days in one and um, you know, next day in the other, there's a massive cost difference associated with having such different times on your shipping. But I think it's important to understand actually do you lose more customers by doing the seven day versus the one day and what is the difference if you did on your cost? Because the simplest way I could explain it is that if you had next day delivery and then you had seven day delivery and customers dropped off, say 10% of customers dropped off the seven day delivery because it's a bit longer, what you then need to understand is of that 10%, is that 10% more or less than what you would have been spending on the next day. So I think it's a little bit of trial and error. Some of it is also based on the product. So if you're shipping something relatively small, there is an expectation quite ordinarily that you can get that item quicker because you can utilize better if you're shipping a bigger item and maybe something a bit more premium, customers are generally a little bit more patient. And so therefore you might be able to be a bit more flexible with your shipping. Um, the other thing I would consider as well is potentially if you are offering longer shipping, whether you can then set days so a customer could book when they're going to actually expect their delivery on a certain day because that then gives that customer a sense of certainty to say, I know I'm going to get this on this day instead of in seven days time, for example. So I think there's different ways of looking at it. Um, but they would be a few points I would look at talking about

Speaker B: setting the right expectations. Right, let's jump into the rule of tech and um, notifications that the customers need to be aware of when it comes to shipping. Same example, Amazon keeps you in the loop at all times from the moment uh, the shipment leaves the warehouse till the moment it boats the truck and it's out for delivery. So probably customers are spoiled for those notifications as well. Uh, how should companies, or specifically e commerce businesses cater to that kind of expectations that customers are having?

Speaker A: I think fundamentally the more visibility you get, the better. The caveat to that I would say is that ah, sometimes the more visibility you get um, the more prominent it is when there's a mistake or there is something wrong. So it's not as hidden. The infrastructure in Amazon is incredibly impressive and it works at scale but there's a lot of pressure for small businesses to try and adopt that. Uh, and what I would say is trying to understand that customer journey. What are the key points and also how long is that shipping experience? Because if your shipping experience for example is one to three days, then sending an update every day probably isn't that helpful. But I think something that Amazon M does a great job of that should probably be encouraged across the board is that at the point of purchase you need to know how long it's going to take. And so that's where it's really beneficial to say next day, three to five days etc. At the point the product then gets dispatched, it's more than likely helpful again for the customers to be informed on the day of actual delivery dependent on the type of product. If it's a large and bulky item, it's often good practice to get in touch day before and maybe 30 minutes prior to delivery. If it's a smaller item then it might just be sufficient to communicate via email to say your item is going to be arriving today. Um, and again it depends from a courier perspective whether you utilize couriers because they quite often will have tracking infrastructure already in place. Um, but I think a lot of it does depend on what your shipping offering is, um, and what your customers expectations are along that journey. And um, it's always better to start I would say with a little bit less to try and understand. Is this sufficient or do we need to add another layer in? So a good measure would be if you are constantly having customers contact your member support function to say where's my order? That might indicate to the business, hang on, we need another step here to be able to inform our customers so they can track this and reduce the number of calls coming in.

Speaker B: That's a brilliant strategy. Um, so taking a complete detour from uh, what we were speaking earlier, um, so we were talking about women and logistics, right? And there are far and few. Is that because there are a lot of challenges when it comes to, you know, thriving in the logistic industry as a whole, or is it something that, you know, that women are not attracted to as a job? What do you think? Think, um, are the reasons that we don't find many women in logistics also they do not uh, take up logistics as a sector, uh, when it comes to having a career option.

Speaker A: I think it's a great question and it's a very sound observation. So there's very few women that occupy roles in logistics and senior roles as well. I think there's something to be said about the environment and a lot to do with the kind of historical piece. When you think of logistics, you think of big trucks, you think of um, ugly safety boots that are very important to wear. You think of high visibility vests. It doesn't feel or look like an attractive um, prospect. And it's certainly very male dominated. So if you look at the transport industry for example, um, there's a high level of male colleagues that occupy that industry. So I think some of that is to do with the fact that because there are not that many women and they're not as visible within logistics, it doesn't appeal as much to women as a potential career. Um, from my experience there's so much that can be learned and it's such an exciting platform to work in. Um, it is challenging I think being a woman in logistics because there's not as many women around you and so you want to be able to encourage people to work there. But there are some assumptions and so I've been in examples before where you have been in the meeting and somebody has assumed that your male counterpart is actually the leader within logistics because it's just the way that it has been and it wasn't intended offensively. Um, but it's just that kind of culture that you have where logistics is male dominated. Um, in terms of the job itself, I would absolutely encourage women to consider joining um, and pursuing a career in logistics. It's a lot to do with problem solving which I think is gender neutral. Both men and women are very good at problem solving in different ways. Um, but it's also generally quite a people related role. When you're running warehouses, um, I think there's some really amazing skill sets that again people can leverage and so it is actually at the heart of it, a very appealing role that involves problem solving, it involves strategy, it involves managing and working with people. And those three things are in lots of industries which are very rich with women as well. Um, but I think it has been a little bit blockaded by the fact that it's historically always been a very male dominated environment. And the areas that you're managing, for example transportation, drivers, um, are also very male dominated, um, roles. So I think that's maybe one of the barriers. But also it's a great opportunity that's very well articulated.

Speaker B: Thank you so much, Krishna for coming on our show today and leaving us a lot of insights and a lot to think about for women, uh, from a career option and how logistics can be a very, very attractive, lucrative, uh, option when it comes to career for women. Um, thank you so much for sharing your insights about delivery experiences and how e commerce businesses should go about planning their shipping and fulfillment. Um, and those. There were some really good examples. So thank you. Um, overall and uh, hope many more women, um, look at logistics as an um, attractive carrier option, um, moving forward.

Speaker A: Amazing. Thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed this. And um, yes, please, more women in logistics. I would love that. Sat.