The DNA of the Global E-Commerce Market Is Changing With The Impact Of The Pandemic
By: Akın Arslan
Tags: Last Mile Delivery, Logistics, Delivery, Trucking Industry, E Commerce Market

E-commerce is the logistics because we have to move the products from the merchants to the consumer who is ordering the product. Even if you are committed to offering the best product in the world to the customer at the most affordable price, if you fail to deliver at the expected speed and quality, you will fail.

If you cannot deliver the goods that meet the expectations of the customers at a speed that will satisfy the customer, you have no chance of success. If you cannot manage the delivery operation effectively you can’t provide fast supply and distribution. Return rates of products purchased especially in the clothing segment are approaching 40%. There is no way to solve this operation with conventional cargo systems. You have to use location-based smart systems supported by mobile applications.

Instead of trying to send products from a limited number of warehouses to the whole country, new generation procurement technologies developed with augmented intelligence. You can easily collect e-commerce orders locally where they come from, focus on location-based orders, instantly see the stock status of approved product suppliers in that region.

TIRPORT starts a new era in e-commerce logistics with its RapidChain technology

RapidChain is developed by TIRPORT as a “Last Mile Delivery” technology. It aims to accelerate e-commerce logistics and optimize all supply chain and delivery processes.

RapidChain: How it works?

Whether it is a GSM operator, a bookstore or a clothing store chain, if they integrate RapidChain technology into their e-commerce infrastructure, they can bring their suppliers / dealers together with the customers in a smart way. For example; a mobile phone may be purchased from a major GSM operator’s website but it can be delivered to the customer on the same day from the nearest authorized dealer.

Young Chinese people expect their morning purchases to be delivered during the day

Chinese consumers expect the products they purchase from the websites to be delivered on the same day. If the delivery is not completed during the day, they can write negative comments. Consumers are less and less patient with multi-days shipping periods and more and more companies offer 1 day fulfillment.

China is the biggest e-commerce market in the world and this market is still growing quickly. Z and Y generation Chinese consumers expect products they bought in the morning to be delivered during the same day. Not just to the home or workplace, he or she wants to be flexible about delivery address. They want to be able to redefine their delivery address based on their daily schedule. It makes them happy to be able to receive the product at the shopping mall he goes to or at Starbucks where he has a chat with his friend. Even the feeling of flexibility in delivery makes him or her comfortable.

Digitalization is rapidly transforming our daily life. Everything is changing; the way we do business, our work place and the state administration. The pandemic process, which has taken over the whole world since December 2019, has triggered the spread and acceleration of digitalization. Penetration of Digitization in education, trade and business management has grown exponentially.

Pandemic has grown the global e-commerce market by 70% within a year

In 2019, the rate of e-commerce among the total retail sales in the world was around 10%. About $ 4 trillion was spent on e-commerce. Penetration before the Pandemic; 20% in China, 14% in the US, 12% on average in Europe, in Turkey was around 6%.

E-commerce volume is running for 7 trillion dollars.

As of the end of 2020, the global e-commerce volume is running for 7 trillion dollars. There is a complete e-commerce revolution in China, the ratio of e-commerce in total trade has approached 40%. In Turkey, it came to 14%.

36.5% of Internet users use e-commerce in Turkey. E-commerce volume runs to 200 Billion TL at the end of 2020.

While 20% of internet users were using e-commerce before the pandemic, this rate increased to 50% at the end of 2020. Internet prevalence increased much more in this period when working from home was concentrated and education was completely switched to remote mode. The rate of access to the Internet from home raises to 90.4% in Turkey. 79% of our population now has internet access. 36.5% of those who access the internet shop online at various frequencies. 51,731,134 people have access to e-government in Turkey. 700 institutions offer 5.334 services over e-government. 62.2% of the population in Turkey has become highly benefit from e-government services.

With the effect of Covid-19, the effective use of e-commerce in domestic and foreign trade has gained importance. The e-commerce volume, which was 55.9 billion TL in the first six months of 2019, increased by 64% in the first six months of 2020 to 91.7 billion TL. The amount of e-commerce, which was 136 billion TL in 2019, is expected to exceed 200 billion TL by the end of this year.

78% of online shoppers are under the age of 45

According to the data of the Ministry of Trade; In e-commerce, 37.5% of the users are between the ages of 25–34, 22.5% between the ages of 35–44, and 18% between the ages of 18–24. In other words, e-commerce was that 78% of the users are under the age of 45.

60% of the total e-commerce in Turkey gathered in three provinces: three major cities with 31.3% of Turkey’s total population, it is twice the share of e-commerce. Istanbul has a share of 47%, Ankara 8%, and Izmir 5%.

Customers expect services far beyond traditional delivery systems

Turkey E-commerce seems to grow by over 70%. As the volume grew exponentially, customer dissatisfaction also increased significantly. Applications to consumer arbitration committees have exploded, returns have begun to force companies considerably. The biggest source of complaints are “late deliveries” and “barriers in return processes”. In particular, the messages of the cargo companies “we went address but were not there” disturb consumers. Those notes, which are actually dropped without visiting the address, damage the reputation of cargo/delivery companies.

TIRPORT’s RapidChain technology also eliminates this kind of delivery problems. Even if cargo staff went to the address, RapidChain Technology prevents some process notes like “we went to the address but was not at the address”.

RapidChain Business Model

RapidChain can also optimize return processes at the same delivery operation. When the courier arrives at the building for delivery, they can see the addresses near that building waiting to be collected for return.

Many traditional retail chains’ top selling stores have become the online stores. There are lots of store chains whose online sales have increased by more than 400% with the pandemic effect. Even classic grocery chains have begun to set up delivery networks that will provide delivery within hours. Cargo companies insist on working with traditional agency systems. However, they are not able to meet the developing demands of their consumers with their classical organizational structure. Many large manufacturers cannot deliver at least 40% of the products, they need to ship during the day. Because courier companies cannot receive for that amount of delivery. Some large e-commerce sites have started to establish their own distribution organizations in big cities where orders are high. Those who continue to distribute with traditional methods will not be able to remain a player in the sector in the near future. Cargo solutions, -supported by increased intelligence and location-based technologies, are candidates to change the main players in the sector.

The DNA of e-commerce is changing, and the biggest change will be in supply and distribution technologies. How ready are you? What are you doing to be ready?