The much-awaited festive season is just around the corner! Gifts, glitter, colourful clothing, delicious foods, smiles, and rejoice take all the stress away. But what if the gifts people send to their dear ones don’t reach on time? Gloomy faces, disappointments, and even anger are likely to play spoilsport.

Diwali is just a few days away. This is the time when millions of people in India turn to the e-commerce portals and resort to an unprecedented shopping frenzy. Riding the festive wave, online retailers gear up to make their cash registers jingle. This is once in a year opportunity, never to miss! Things are, however, not as easy as it sounds as e-commerce portals have a mountain to climb as they have to deal with large volumes of packages, which need to be delivered ‘on time.’ Considering the poor logistics infrastructure, it remains an uphill task provided eTailers have formulated an effective strategy well in advance.

Parcel Delivery Fiascos in the Recent Past
During the 2014 Diwali season, many online shoppers experienced utter disappointment as most of them received delivery failed messages from etailers. Due to a lack of infrastructure and inefficient supply chain, packages got piled up at the logistics firms, creating a huge shipping backlog. By the time the backlog was cleared, Diwali was over, and parcels reached to the recipients well after the due date.

Despite all the hype, incredible discounts, and the prospect of generating high revenues during festive seasons most eTailers fail to keep up when it comes to delivering on time. Unless they spruce up their supply chain to make the delivery process seamless, shipping backlog will keep haunting them.
Instances of botched-up deliveries have made online retailers learn their lesson the hard way. They are now more aware and take measures in advance to deal with such mammoth workload. However, are they still fully prepared to clear up the logistical bottlenecks?

Even though eTailers hire a large number of seasonal employees to streamline the sales and supply chain to process unforeseen volumes during the holiday rush, a major obstacle still remains in the form of the ‘Last Mile’ delivery. Unless a significant overhaul is initiated, delivery delays will continue to happen.

On another occasion, during the 2015 pre-Christmas season in the US, a couple of major retailers alerted customers about the impending shipping delays. Later, it turned out to be a mudslinging between FedEx and the retailers, blaming one another for missed deliveries.

What is an Ideal Course of Action for Retailers?
In order to avoid such inefficiencies, retailers need to assess their existing supply chain network, and can ponder over the following ideas:

•Getting their website ready for a huge daily traffic
•Providing easy navigation experience to the visitors
•Getting rid of manual tracking of packages and tracking through GPS
•Streamlining the supply chain by incorporating alternative solutions also like automated parcel lockers
•Allowing diverse and convenient payment methods like CSOD(Card Swipe On Delivery)

Integrating advanced technology with human resources can make a world of difference in revamping the supply chain and ensuring last mile delivery success.

Future Perfect: How Integrating the Automated Parcel Locker Technology Can Bring in Relief

Persistent last mile delivery issues have been a nightmare for most retailers in India. Despite the fact that the digital retail industry is growing at an exponential rate, the lack of a robust delivery system is pulling things back. It requires a radical change like integrating automated parcel locker systems to turn the tide in favour of the struggling eTailers.

Locker technology has done wonders in Europe and working well in North America by significantly improving the rate of successful package deliveries and boosting customer satisfaction. An automated parcel locker system that enables retailers to drop parcels and shoppers to collect them without any human intervention seems to be the way to embrace the next generation digital shopping. The technology is advanced, yet its implementation and outcome are pretty straightforward; getting the delivery done from courier hubs to customers in a hassle-free manner.

The process goes like this; retailers and the shipping companies are allotted delivery terminals, delivery persons scan the barcode and place parcels in the designated lockers. An email or text message notifies the shopper confirming delivery along with a one-time password (OTP). Customers can collect their parcel any time, usually within three business days. In the case of return too, customers need to put the package back in the locker, and a delivery guy will pick it. The entire process is efficient and flawless!

The good news is India too has joined digital mainstream by incorporating this top-of-the-line delivery system. In this context, the emergence of Smartbox is considered as a breakthrough when it comes to streamlining the retail delivery system by providing technology-based parcel delivery service. Smartbox delivery terminals have been installed in the convenient locations such as metro stations, community centres, and office premises from where shoppers can pick their parcels any time, be it the early morning or late night. Moreover, the terminals are environment-friendly and reduce carbon footprint.

To learn more about incorporating parcel lockers as part of the retail supply chain, you can browse our website – https://smartbox.in/. Smartbox has launched India’s first network of Automated Parcel Delivery Terminals. We are helping out major retail players and e-commerce sites to streamline their delivery process by installing parcel lockers. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at 8882-760-760, and we will be glad to assist you.