The fastest ways to deliver goods in Ukraine

E-commerce provides customers with a lot of advantages in terms of the range and price of goods. Perhaps the only factor in which online stores are inferior to brick-and-mortar stores is the speed of purchase. In a regular store, you come, see, like, and buy. On the Internet, you have to wait for the order to be delivered. In this sense, the success of e-commerce largely depends on how quickly an entrepreneur can deliver the ordered goods to the buyer. This is especially important for impulse purchases, when the customer is "on fire". Fast delivery is a guarantee that the customer will not "jump ship".

And given that many online stores today operate on a dropshipping basis (i.e., without having their own warehouse, acting as intermediaries between large suppliers and end customers), the issue of efficient transportation logistics becomes doubly relevant for them.

Delivery of goods purchased on the Internet is handled by specialized postal delivery companies.

E-commerce market: trends dictated by the pandemic

Delivery services owe their rapid development to online commerce. It was with the massive emergence of online stores that the need arose to deliver the purchased goods to the customer quickly and safely. Today, the transportation and logistics component is an integral part of the e-commerce market.

The coronavirus pandemic and massive quarantine restrictions have led to the so-called sofa revolution, with more and more people buying more and more goods online. And this growth is quite dramatic.

According to the EVO Group, in 2020, the e-commerce market in Ukraine grew by 40% to UAH 107 billion. This year, the trend will continue. The projected growth is 28% and the market will reach UAH 137 billion by the end of 2021.

It is safe to say that the growth of the transport logistics market for e-commerce will be similar.

Not only specialized postal companies, but also retailers themselves are struggling to raise additional funds. Even today, the largest Ukrainian online hypermarkets are actively promoting their own delivery and pickup networks. In this case, the customer is offered comprehensive services and additional incentives in the form of attractive bonuses, preferential subscriptions and a single window, when the customer deals with one company from ordering the goods to receiving them.

How to compete for customers with Rozetka and its points of delivery?

What should medium and small online stores do in this situation?

The effectiveness of work in such conditions depends on three main factors:

• The price of the product. It's simple: the cheaper the product is sold in your store, the more likely it is that it will be purchased from you.
• Speed of order processing within the online store. It is very important that the time from receiving an order to sending the goods is minimal. Any delay can lead to the loss of a customer. To effectively control all stages of online trading, accounting programs have been developed that will provide the entrepreneur with all the necessary information about goods and finances in real time - purchase and selling prices, warehouse balances, expenses, revenue, etc. Among such programs, one of the most popular in Ukraine is Torgsoft. In addition to the above advantages, it allows you to connect and exchange data with popular marketplaces: Prom and Rozetka. And this is an additional opportunity to earn money.
• Speed and terms of delivery. Fast and high-quality delivery will crown all your previous efforts and allow you to add another satisfied customer to your asset. Conversely, slow and careless delivery will create an unpleasant impression of buying from your online store. That's why you need to choose a delivery service carefully. And for this, it is important to have the necessary information about delivery services, their capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages.

Rating of the most popular delivery services in Ukraine

There are many delivery services in Ukraine: universal and specialized, public and corporate, widespread and local.
Eight major companies are engaged in servicing the e-commerce market. As expected, Nova Poshta was the largest and most popular. Its services are used by almost all online stores and their customers - 97%.

The second place turned out to be collective. It was taken by in-house delivery services owned by large retail chains and marketplaces, accounting for 40% of the popularity rating. The most striking example is Rozetka, which is actively developing its own logistics.

Ukrposhta, the only state-owned company in the ranking, rounds out the top three. 33% of online stores have experience in delivering goods with Ukrposhta. This is followed by Intime, Delivery, Mist Express, and Autolux with a decreasing share. Zruchna closes the popularity rating. The rest of the postal market participants gained less than one percent.

As you can see, the total number of points in the rating is significantly higher than 100%. This is due to the fact that most entrepreneurs use various delivery services in their business.

In terms of the amount of cargo sent by online stores to customers, Nova Poshta remains the leader here as well. 64% of all online orders in Ukraine are delivered to customers by Nova Poshta. In second place with a significant margin are the own courier services of large online sellers - 13%. Ukrposhta is in 3rd place with 8%. Next is Intime with 6%. Each of the other services accounts for 1% or less of the total volume.

In the spring of 2020, Intime announced problems in its operations that it was unable to resolve. As a result, by the end of the year, the operator practically left the delivery market.

Features of delivery services

We studied public information about the companies. The data is presented in the comparative table.

Ukrposhta has the largest branch networks (over 13,700) and Nova Poshta (over 6,000). Autolux has the smallest (200).

Ukrposhta takes the longest to deliver parcels - 4-6 days, although it offers an express delivery service - 1-2 days.

Customers of all operators can track parcels using the mobile app. All of them also have the ability to interact and connect software systems via API.

All delivery services have customer loyalty programs, except for Mist Express. The principles of incentives vary, from crediting money to a bonus account (Nova Poshta) to discounted time intervals (Ukrposhta's Happy Hours program).

International delivery is available to customers of all operators.

At the moment, only Nova Poshta offers fulfillment services.

Send multiple products to choose from

This service is still quite exotic for the Ukrainian e-commerce market. It is usually used in the clothing trade and is aimed at minimizing the likelihood of refusing to buy goods due to an unsuitable size. By giving customers a choice, stores increase the likelihood of sales. And customers get exactly the right product for them. Among the large delivery services, only Intime provided this service, but with its departure from the market, this niche was vacant.

Delivery by time intervals

Thanks to this service, the customer can choose the time interval for receiving the goods. All major delivery services have implemented this feature, except Ukrposhta and Mist Express.

Delivery costs in Ukraine

Price is perhaps the most important criterion when choosing a delivery service. As a rule, the cost is formed from three main factors: the distance to which the parcel needs to be delivered, the weight and dimensions of the parcel.

To get an objective comparative picture of the cost of delivery, let's take three common types of goods - a smartphone, a microwave, and a TV - and calculate how much transport companies will charge for their transportation from Kharkiv to Lviv. This is 1000+ kilometers. From branch to branch.

As we can see, Nova Poshta's services are the most expensive. Ukrposhta has the lowest delivery rates.

However, in general, the cost difference is not critically large.

Delivery services in Ukraine: customer reviews

What are the distinguishing features of the main delivery services in Ukraine? The following reviews can hardly be considered an accurate characterization, but they will help to form a picture of the work of a particular service. This is how online store owners evaluate market leaders:

Nova Poshta:

• fast delivery,
• high cost of services,
• an extensive network of branches,
• convenient automation and the ability to connect with other services.

Ukrposhta:

• relatively low price,
• low delivery speed,
• is not always a high-quality service,
• an inconvenient program for online delivery registration and tracking.

Bridge Express:

• not enough branches,
• not always high-quality service,
• relatively low prices.

Delaware:

• few branches,
• periodic problems with cargo delivery,
• reasonable prices.

Autolux:

• customers of this service complain about the small number of branches, but note relatively low prices.

Fast is not always convenient. How to work in the interests of the client?

Increasing the speed of delivery of goods is an objective trend for online commerce. For example, in China, most buyers receive the ordered goods on the same day or within 24 hours at most. If an online store is unable to organize such delivery, the customer will go to other sellers. One of the world's leading e-commerce companies, Alibaba Group, has set its logistics division the task of delivering orders anywhere in the world in 72 hours.

But there is another side to this issue. According to surveys, about 40% of online shoppers are inclined to refuse to buy from an online store if they find the delivery conditions inadequate.
At the same time, only a third of customers care about delivery speed and are willing to pay for it.
For others, free or cheaper delivery may be more attractive, albeit with an extended delivery time.

In this sense, it is advisable for the owner of an online store to provide customers with a choice: longer, but cheaper or free of charge; or faster, but for an increased fee.

Flexibility in working with customers is sometimes a decisive factor.

How to work with delivery services in Torgsoft

Torgsoft allows you to work with the delivery of goods directly in the accounting program: generate bill of lading, print invoices, maintain a customer database, control payment for goods, and track the status of the parcel.