About eCommerce Aggregator in India
When e-commerce businesses first began to gain popularity in early 2000, they knew keeping customers happy and orders fulfilled was not a task they could do on their own. Taking a page out of the Beatles book, all they needed to get by was a little help from their friends. They turned to the logistics industry, whose players proceeded to innovate newer and more tech-enabled logistics solutions.
Enter API integrations and AI-driven data engines, all managed by each independent logistics partner to enable the faster flow of vital information to both ecommerce businesses and their customers. With these new logistics solutions on the rise, most businesses find themselves in need of faster methods to tie up and gain access to more of these solutions.
This is where eCommerce aggregators step into the picture. An e-commerce aggregator (also known as shipping or logistics or courier aggregator) is a company with pre-existing ties to multiple logistics companies. When an eCommerce business reaches a certain volume of orders, usually upwards of 500 a month, a single logistics partner is not sufficient to meet all orders. But the orders aren’t going to slow down while searching for a reliable and top-rated second or third logistics partner for your eCommerce business.
It’s at this point in scaling up that you’ll likely come across a website related to eCommerce aggregators in India. An aggregator allows you to select from an existing list of logistics partners and quickly tie up with multiple partners at seemingly low rates. However, every shortcut has its downsides and may eventually run its course. In this article, we’ll be looking at the ups and downs of tying up with logistics aggregators in accordance with phases of growth that every business experiences.
Why Do Businesses Need an eCommerce Aggregator?
The need for an e-commerce aggregator website in India arises in what we call the 1st phase of growth for any retailer. This is when order volumes increase from 100-300 a month to 500 - 3000 a month. While 10 orders a day may be fulfillable by a single logistics partner, 100 orders a day is a totally different ball game. There is a certain level of predictability assigned to this growth. However, it’s not easy to find and select logistics partners to keep on standby, waiting for that eventual implosion of orders.
This is when eCommerce aggregators step in. They show you a menu of logistics companies you can select a partner from. They then integrate you with the partners of your choosing for a specified monthly fee. At these early stages of growth, there are a few advantages to this drive-through method of selecting and tying up with a logistics or shipping company in India. They are:
1. Easy Carrier Selection
Most eCommerce aggregators are already tied up with anywhere between 5 and 20 different logistics companies. So instead of sifting through 150+ top logistics companies that are spread out across India, you can select from a smaller number. This makes the task of selecting a logistics partner or company become much easier.
2. Simplified Costs
Ecommerce Aggregators typically have pre-existing agreements with logistics partners. They use the total estimated volume of orders they are likely to receive on a monthly basis to negotiate lower eCommerce logistics and shipping costs. With lower shipping rates provided to aggregators, the aggregators can then provide e-commerce businesses with simplified rates for all aggregation services.
3. Wide Reach
Because aggregators are tied up with at least 5 logistics companies, if not more, they have access to a wider pin code reach. That is, in comparison to the reach of your single logistics partner at the time. It also means you can select logistics partners based on their serviceability and pin code reach.
4. Easy Order Management
Aggregators offer a systematic view of all orders with partnered logistics companies. They do this with the help of streamlined shipping API integrations and analytics. This allows you to manage your orders with multiple logistics partners through a single platform, i.e, the eCommerce aggregator website. It saves you the trouble of jumping from platform to platform of respective partners to track orders with each of them.
List of Top 10 Best eCommerce Shipping and Courier Aggregators in India
Taking information and opinions from e-commerce companies all across the country, here’s everything (and we mean everything) that you need to know about shipping aggregators. The value of India’s e-commerce industry rose from a mere $2.5 billion in 2009 to $64 billion in 2020, in just a little over a decade.
As the industry boomed, smaller companies needed options to compete with massive players like Amazon and Flipkart who dominate the market. To meet the increasing demand, shipping aggregators began to make their way into the e-commerce industry as early as 2012.
Now there are around 20-30 shipping and transportation aggregators spread out across the country that help e-commerce companies optimize their operations. From start to finish, we’re going to discuss the role of shipping or logistics aggregators in India, keeping in mind the speed at which the e-commerce market continues to grow and change.
1. ECourierz eCommerce Aggregator in India
ECourierz operates both within India and all across the globe. However, they are most appreciated for their international shipping services.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 21000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 20
- Founded In: 2015
- Number of Employees: ~30
2. iThink Logistics eCommerce Aggregator in India
iThink Logistics has no minimum volume requirements and provides NDR management services to deal with escalations and delivery exceptions.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 26000+
- Number of Courier Partners: ~10
- Founded In: 2016
- Number of Employees: ~26
3. Pickrr eCommerce Aggregator
Pickrr provides monthly rates in accordance with the number of shipments made per month. They provide access to most of the remote areas in the country.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 27000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 10
- Founded In: 2015
- Number of Employees: ~50
4. Rocketbox Shipping Aggregator in India
Rocketbox offers a limited selection of courier partners but a greater range of serviceability and rate calculator to determine the best rate for each shipment.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 28000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 7
- Founded In: 2015
- Number of Employees: 40
5. ShipDroid Courier Aggregator
ShipDroid is also tied with fewer courier companies and only services 20,000+ pin codes (compared to 28,000+ by Rocketbox). However, their accounts management system remains extremely popular.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 20000+
- Number of Courier Partners: ~3
- Founded In: 2016
- Number of Employees: 10-50
6. ShipKaro Logistics Aggregator
ShipKaro offers low standard rates for individual and bulk shipments in the form of 3 available monthly plans, depending on the number of orders fulfilled every month.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 20000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 13
- Founded In: 2017
- Number of Employees: ~100
7. Ship Rocket eCommerce Aggregator
As one of the most popular aggregators currently in the market, Ship Rockets offers a large number of courier partners and greater pin code serviceability.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 27000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 17
- Founded In: 2012
- Number of Employees: ~240
8. ShipYaari Aggregator for eCommerce Shipping
ShipYaari offers low monthly rates and a Money-Back-Guarantee (MBG) for certain types of failed orders. They also have a no-initial-cost monthly plan for businesses.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 25000+
- Number of Courier Partners: ~7
- Founded In: 2013
- Number of Employees: ~50
9. Shyplite eCommerce Aggregator
Shyplite charges on the basis of the dimensions and parameters of each individual shipment. They also offer COD services, a tech-enabled recommendation engine and a customized tracking page for order updates.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 26000+
- Number of Courier Partners: 16+
- Founded In: 2016
- Number of Employees: ~100
10. Silver Arrow eCommerce Aggregator-in-India
One of the earliest aggregators founded, Silver Arrow makes use of radio frequencies and associated technology to provide near real-time updates, along with providing risk assessments for shipments.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 27000+
- Number of Courier Partners: ~10
- Founded In: 2012
- Number of Employees: ~50
11. Vamaship
Vamaship is possibly most liked for offering QC (quality check) services to shipments demarcated as customer-initiated returns. This almost makes up for their typically slow remittance cycle.
- Pin Code Serviceability: 27000+
- Number of Courier Partners: ~10
- Founded In: 2015
- Number of Employees: ~35
What are the Limitations of Using eCommerce Aggregators?
In the 1st phase of growth, your eCommerce business needs are very clear. You need more logistics partners to tie up with. You need to do it quickly. And you need to expend as little time and effort as possible integrating with them. E-commerce aggregators are great for that. But if all goes as planned, soon you’ll reach the 2nd phase of growth. This is when your order volumes start to go well beyond the 1000-3000 range.
At this point, order fulfillment isn’t the only goal. What you’re trying to provide customers with is a well-rounded delivery experience. So your choice of logistics partner, the technology being utilized and the way individual problems are handled is of vital importance.
This is where you will start to see the flipside of an eCommerce aggregator, i.e., how it can impair your relationship with your logistics partners and your customers. Here are some of the challenges faced by the use of eCommerce aggregators in the 2nd phase of growth.
1) Bad Customer Experience
Customer experience is one of the main elements of every eCommerce company’s growth. Happy customers mean a happy business. And keeping customers satisfied is a relatively simple task, provided you have the ability to keep customers informed about the life cycle and journey of their order. This goes doubly so in case of delays or stuck shipments.
With ecommerce aggregators, there is an added layer of communication stuck between you and your logistics partners. This can lead to delays in providing customers with information on their orders. Consequently, customer anxiety tends to flair up and the result is a higher number of cancellations and low brand loyalty.
2) Limited Carrier Selection
For everything in the world of business, there is a price. The price of easy carrier selection is a limited selection of logistics partners to choose from. While it can be cumbersome to dig through 150+ logistics partners to find the right one for you, it can be highly beneficial.
You can choose logistics partners that offer niche services, reach remote areas and provide e-commerce-specific solutions. Choosing from a limited platter of 5-20 logistics or courier partners can speed up the process in the short term, but slow it down in the long run.
3) Limited Scope of Services
Limiting the logistics partners you can choose from is one way in which ecommerce aggregators reduce the range of services you can access. Another downside is that aggregators may only allow certain services to be offered by their logistics partners, based on your payment plan or order volumes.
In both cases, your access to services is restricted which can have a negative impact on the continued growth of your business. This is because many services become necessary only after a certain point of growth to address specific pain points.
4) Potential Double Costs
Ecommerce aggregators are known for taking the complex calculations made by logistics partners to determine shipping costs, and reducing them to simplified monthly payments. They can also use potential high order volumes to negotiate lower shipping costs. However, ecommerce aggregators also usually charge an added margin to these costs to increase their profitability. In addition to that, specific services may end up adding unnecessarily to your costs at unexpected times.
5) No Long Term Suitability
No Ecommerce business ever starts its journey with an end date in mind. The goal is to continue living, growing, and thriving as a successful business venture. This means the future needs to be kept in sight at all times. E-commerce aggregators can help when an urgent need for an additional logistics partner arises.
However, meeting this urgent need through an aggregator comes at the cost of long-term growth. Relationships with logistics partners need to be maintained in the same manner as any other relationship. Issues must be regularly identified and improved upon through clear communication. With aggregators acting as middlemen, your eCommerce business eventually experiences a gap in its supply chain.
Final Conclusion
Logistics Ecommerce aggregators are companies that give you quick and easy access to courier partner integrations at seemingly viable rates and with minimal fuss. When your eCommerce business is just beginning to grow in terms of order volumes, aggregators seem ideal. However, growth is measured in terms of improvement and efficiency.
With eCommerce aggregators in India holding all the power to communicate with logistics partners, it becomes extremely difficult to push improvement initiatives forward. Your opportunities to negotiate better costs, increase carrier accountability and further optimize your delivery mechanism can be restricted. While aggregators may not be the answer to absolute success, they are one of the foremost stepping stones to growth and expansion in the eCommerce industry.
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