Google EMEA Roundtable: Senthil Shares on How the Logistics and eCommerce Industry is Keeping Up Rising Consumer Demands

Clockwise from top left: Google’s Heidi Hart, Janio’s Senthil Kumar, EasyShip’s Augustine Ceyrac, DHL Express’s Leendert van Delft

There are years where we see only days’ worth of change while we see some days with years’ worth of change. These past months have certainly seen many years worth of change for retailers and service providers, particularly in terms of eCommerce adoption and the expectations surrounding it.

Janio is proud to be a part of Google for Retail’s June 2021 Central Eastern Europe (CEE) Retail Month. CEE Retail month’s aim is to help retailers and service providers understand new shopping behaviours and act on them before this year’s peak periods begin.

This initiative by Google provides retailers and service providers with a collection of events and content releases aimed specifically at arming them with insights to power up their eCommerce efforts in time for the Q3 and Q4. You can access this by signing up via the link at the end of the article.

Janio’s Senthil Kumar, Group Head of Commercial, was invited as a panelist to the Retail Month’s supply chain and logistics panel discussion. The panel was led by Google’s Heidi Hart, Logistics Programme Manager with other speakers being DHL Express’s Leendert van Delft, Vice-President Global Sales Programs, Marketing and Global E-Commerce and Easyship Co-founder Augustine Ceyrac.

The panel’s key theme was that shoppers are buying online more than ever while also demanding more delivery options and transparency. As a result, logistics and supply chain’s role in eCommerce to reach and engage with customers is more important than before.

Key topics included consumer trends in eCommerce and last mile delivery, delivery and tracking trends, and how service providers and merchants can meet delivery demands from customers.

Senthil mentioned that to help meet consumer’s heightened demands for visibility and transparency, tracking data should not just be limited to the forward journey but also for exceptions and returns flows.

He also shared that to meet demands for flexibility and to stay ahead of supply chain uncertainty, one must manage their capacity utilisation, capacity variation and route optimisation. Capacity utilisation means maximising freight usage to gain economies of scale and hence gain more savings. Capacity variation refers to using multiple available transport modes such as cross-border trucking and sea freight so that you are not reliant on only one transport mode. Route optimisation can make deliveries more efficient without the need to revamp your operations systems.

He added that Janio achieves this through the use of SMS notifications, advanced booking systems to better plan routes, and deploying solutions such as pick up and drop off points. Janio also provides multiple modes of transport throughout Southeast Asia as mentioned above.

The panel discussion ended with all the speakers giving their final thoughts on the trends the eCommerce and logistics industry is facing, and how companies can deal with them. Senthil concluded by mentioning that companies need to look at the entire supply chain from procurement all the way to last mile delivery to see if their system can withstand the shock of a global event. Keep an eye out for alternative sources and alternative means of inbound fulfilment, inventory management and final mile delivery.

To access this panel discussion as well as other materials from the Google CEE Retail Month June 2021, you can register via this Google signup link.