For e-commerce businesses dealing in physical products, a smooth logistics process is essential before rolling out products to the market. Good logistics is more than just a process of transferring products, materials, components to different places. It is the key component of a supply chain that makes it easier to get these products and goods transferred to another destination with proper management. This means finding the right partner from the first mile to the last.
Prioritise your needs selecting your partner as the right partner can help reduce your costs. Since a large percentage of goods offered on online stores are imported from outside the country through a complicated web of multiple entities from origin to destination, the process needs to be able to support the demands of your customers versus the prices they are willing to pay to get the product to their doorstep. From the speed of getting it delivered to keeping the rates minimum, logistics always works upon these priorities. Usually, the faster you need to expedite the delivery process, the higher the charges are.
Many logistics can be separated into first mile (freight forwarders, shipping companies, ETC), third party logistics providers (3PL) and last mile (typically your couriers and delivery houses. Companies like UPS are able to provide all of these services.
