What is the best company (commercial service) to promote a website?

Guys,please clear my concerns 1. For an e-commece website(marketplace model) which is the best logistic company to opt for in terms considering the best cost/service efficiency? 2. Why do sites like SnapDeal have the Vendors ship the products to thei

• Guys,please clear my concerns 1. For an e-commece website(marketplace model) which is the best logistic company to opt for in terms considering the best cost/service efficiency? 2. Why do sites like SnapDeal have the Vendors ship the products to their own warehouse, from where its then shipped to the customers.Doesn't this process incur an increase in the logistic cost than when a Vendor is asked to ship directly? Please enlighten me.Thanks in advance

• Answer:

  As for the first part there are many; depends on what, where and how much you want to ship. Bluedart has very high picnode reach and is the most professional one in the field and lately they have started an eCommerce division internally to handle eCommerce related shipments but is a bit expensive. First Flight & Aramex are other options with his pincode reach and are slightly cheaper. And then there are option like DTDC/AFL/Delhivery which have smaller reach but are relatively cheaper. For the 2nd part : There are different models of shipment but I will discuss only two as you want a direct comparison between the two. Dropship : This is when the Vendor ships the order directly. Vendor gets the order, then procures the order, packs it and then waits for the courier to visit (1-2 times daily). The courier then ships the product directly. Using a fulfillment center: In this model vendor gets the order and as soon as he has the product he intimates it to the 'Company' (snapdeal in this case) and then the company picks up the product and takes it to the warehouse. The product then goes through Quality Check then it is packed and shipped. What is the benefit of the 2nd process? Say you have 30 vendors spread over in Delhi and each gets about 30-40 orders per day. Now if they are in a drop ship model you can assign at max 2-3 couriers to pick up the order from them 1-2 time a day. This would : Limit the Pincode reach since you can't ask each of your 10-12 courier to visit all 30 vendors. Delay the order shipment as the order of morning can't be shipped before late afternoon since the couriers won't visit a vendor more than twice daily No Quality check So what is done in a Fulfillment center model is a route is set to pick up orders from all 30 vendors. The pickup team make 4-5 rounds daily and takes all the orders to the warehouse. Now at this warehouse all the 10-12 couriers visit daily 3-4 times depending on their respective volumes. What this does is: Each of these 30 vendors has now 12 couriers servicing them instead of 1-2. This drastically increases their pincode reach Pickups are done 3-4 times a day instead of 1-2 so the orders can be shipped as soon as they are placed. Packing process in fulfillment center is on a large scale and is very efficient and reduces the time from order to ship drastically. Gives an option for quality check.