The advantages, disadvantages and countermeasures of Taobao logistics development

Advantages, Disadvantages and Countermeasures of Taobao Logistics Development

1. The operation mode and main advantages of Taobao Logistics

The current logistics method implemented by Taobao is recommended In terms of logistics, in order to better serve sellers and buyers, Taobao adopts the strategy of supply chain cooperation with logistics companies.

The so-called supply chain cooperation means that Taobao cooperates with logistics companies to provide optional logistics services to sellers and buyers. Logistics companies directly accept and process customers’ logistics demand orders in the backend of the website, thus establishing a A true C2C e-commerce platform.

The specific functions of this logistics service are as follows: (1) Taobao provides sellers and buyers with recommended cooperation services for logistics providers in the "shipping method". Sellers and buyers can freely choose to cooperate with logistics providers. cooperation. (2) Taobao and logistics providers, when a seller processes a customer's order, the cooperative logistics provider's backend can receive and immediately process the transaction customer's logistics order. (3) Sellers can choose "recommended logistics providers" on Taobao, or they can choose another logistics provider themselves. Sellers have the right to freely choose logistics providers when auctioning products. (4) Taobao has the function of calculating "logistics prices". Based on the addresses of sellers and buyers, the website can automatically calculate the shipping prices of various logistics suppliers, and also allows sellers to re-modify logistics costs.

What are the advantages of Taobao’s adoption of the recommended logistics model? It is mainly reflected in the following points:

1. Strengthened control of logistics links.

"After using recommended logistics, the biggest benefit to Taobao is to strengthen the control of logistics." Taobao product manager Yan Jun said. The reason for this enhanced control is that before entering Taobao's recommended logistics, logistics companies must sign relevant agreements with Taobao to agree on service prices, content and methods, as well as very favorable compensation terms, and stipulate that Taobao monitors and supervises logistics The company's handling of complaints and claims. If you use a logistics company recommended by Taobao to place an order, Taobao can act as a fourth-party supervisor and urge the logistics company to fulfill its compensation obligations. If the logistics company cannot pay the compensation in time, Taobao can also pay the compensation to the user in advance to ensure the user's interests.

2. Improvement and standardization of logistics service levels.

Taobao has strengthened its control over logistics, which will bring optimization of logistics services to consumers. Due to Taobao's involvement and supervision, as well as the competition among recommended logistics companies, logistics service standards are being standardized. This includes the standardization of price systems, service standards, service attitudes and compensation standards, of which the most significant manifestations are the decline in logistics prices and the implementation of advance compensation.

3. The immediacy of logistics information improves the speed of logistics operations and customer satisfaction.

Using the recommended logistics company, when the seller processes the order and clicks shipping, the logistics company can immediately receive the logistics order passed by Taobao and process the order online. While logistics companies are processing order delivery, they also feed back various logistics information to Taobao. Customers can check the relevant logistics information of their order products on Taobao, such as the product's freight order number, loading, delivery time, etc. . The enhanced immediacy of logistics information not only improves the operating speed of logistics links, but also improves customer satisfaction.

It can be seen that by recommending logistics, Taobao not only strengthens the management of logistics links, improves the transaction process on Taobao, but also provides substantial support for buyers and sellers in the transfer of business rights. This guarantee not only increases customers’ trust in Taobao, but also achieves multiple goals with one stone. Because Taobao's unique logistics services meet the needs of sellers, buyers and logistics providers, Taobao's transaction volume has remained high. During the Spring Festival this year, express delivery companies such as STO, YTO, and SF Express have announced that they will continue to accept orders as usual. From New Year's Eve to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year alone, Taobao's transaction volume exceeded 1 billion.

3. Disadvantages of Taobao Logistics

1. There are many recommended logistics companies, but Taobao’s management of them is weak.

Currently, there are more than 20 logistics companies recommended by Taobao. Taobao can generally only make some regulations on logistics companies in a general direction, but has little control over actual logistics operations.

For example, misdelivery of customer orders often occurs, resulting in delays in orders and losses to customers. In addition, due to the generally low quality of delivery employees of my country's express delivery companies, conflicts between delivery personnel and buyers often occur in the last mile of completing transactions. Since express delivery companies do not have any tracking of consumer services, express delivery companies or couriers may completely destroy Taobao's logistics services in the last mile, causing consumers to no longer shop online. In a survey I conducted among some netizens on "Are there conflicts with logistics companies during online shopping?", 26.61% of people chose "yes", and many netizens said that the actual proportion may be larger than this. Under normal circumstances, the losses caused by these incidents can only be paid by customers, but another consequence is that Taobao's image is damaged.

2. The recommended logistics company is small in scale and the service level is not high.

Currently, Taobao's logistics providers are mainly divided into two types. One is China Post, and the other is some third-party logistics express companies. In transactions, most customers choose general express delivery, that is, third-party express delivery companies. Most of these logistics companies are private enterprises. Their scale is relatively small and their ability to undertake logistics is relatively weak. Therefore, when encountering emergencies, Unable to cope with the situation. According to statistics, Taobao business currently accounts for 50% to 80% of the business volume of many express delivery companies. As Taobao's delivery volume surges, the expansion speed of most express delivery companies has been unable to match it, resulting in a decline in service quality. At the beginning of this year, the Dutch dairy company received a high single-day order that was unimaginable in traditional sales channels - 26,000 orders. However, trouble soon followed. In early April, due to the inability of logistics to adapt to the surge in online orders, the replenishment was not timely, resulting in delivery delays of up to 32 days. The negative reviews forced the Dutch dairy company to issue a network-wide apology announcement in the store. Such troubles not only stir up the bottom line of Taobao sellers, but may also bring disadvantages to Taobao. The continuous accumulation of incidents may cause buyers and sellers to face the risk of traffic "fleeing" on the Taobao platform.

3. Logistics operation costs are high, which affects online transactions.

Express delivery service, because it is door-to-door pickup and delivery, and at the same time must ensure fast time, so it is difficult to achieve batch effect, and the return trip is usually empty. These characteristics make the cost of express delivery comparatively High, resulting in the unit price of express delivery being much higher than general logistics costs. The high logistics costs have offset the advantage of low prices for online shopping products, especially for some relatively low-cost products, plus the express delivery fee of about 10 yuan per item, which means they cannot compete with supermarkets and shopping malls in terms of price advantage. , and therefore, many buyers choose ordinary transactions instead. In a survey I conducted on "How much impact does the level of logistics costs have on you during online shopping?" 22.02% of those who selected ". have a large impact"; 74.31% of those who selected "a certain impact"; and 74.31% who selected "no impact" "Only 3.67%. In order to strive for higher transaction volume and credibility, some small sellers usually spend their own money to pay for logistics. From Taobao's perspective, higher logistics costs also have a great impact on its transaction volume.

4. Taobao relies on logistics companies, which is not conducive to its development.

Last year, there was a lot of publicity on the Internet and news media about the collective price increase of three Taobao logistics companies. This should be a reminder to Taobao. It is said that these three companies have relatively strong operational capabilities and strength among Taobao logistics companies. companies, if they really want to compete with Taobao, I believe they will also have a great impact on Taobao. How Taobao establishes and owns a logistics company that it can control, or bundles interests with large express delivery companies so that Taobao has a reliable logistics network, is an important condition for promoting its own development.

4. Some suggestions for developing Taobao logistics

It can be said that Taobao’s success is due to various factors, among which it is also inseparable from the implementation of its logistics strategy. For example, it has always However, with the development of the economy and the increasing popularity of online transactions, Taobao's logistics has gradually shown that it cannot adapt to the rapidly changing needs of online transactions. There is a demand for special commodities during some special holidays, such as Valentine's Day. The surge in flower ordering and the promotion of some stores have led to a large increase in product demand, which will lead to a situation where logistics cannot meet the demand. Usually sellers can only solve the problem by delaying delivery. Taobao's logistics improvements are needed. I think Taobao’s new logistics should pay more attention to the following aspects:

First, strengthen the management and supervision of logistics and establish an independent logistics evaluation system.

Another way to succeed on Taobao is to use its evaluation system to manage its online sellers. Taobao's evaluation and complaint system is divided into two modules, namely "transaction evaluation" and "store rating". These two items mainly focus on the evaluation of the seller's service attitude, product quality, etc. Although there is also an evaluation of "logistics company service" under the store rating, in most cases, customers will not evaluate the individual stores and transactions, but give an overall score, which makes the logistics The company's fault ultimately falls on the seller. This is also an important reason why many Taobao sellers complain that Taobao’s rating system is unfair and reasonable. Therefore, in order to better improve logistics management, it is very necessary for Taobao to establish an independent logistics evaluation management system.

Second, vigorously promote the “big logistics plan”.

Taobao has also been paying attention to the improvement of logistics. On June 11 this year, Taobao officially announced its big logistics plan. The core of the plan includes the Taobao Logistics platform with fully open API interfaces, logistics There are three major contents including partner system and logistics service standard system. Zhang Yong, chief financial officer of Taobao, said: Taobao Big Logistics "will open up the data information channels and logistics warehousing and distribution of internal and external merchants through the comprehensive docking of online platforms and offline logistics and distribution systems, front-end platform display and back-end logistics management capabilities." channel, providing overall logistics solutions, which can help merchants save about 20% to 30% of logistics costs." Personally, I feel that Taobao’s implementation of the big logistics plan is a great progress in e-commerce’s logistics processing. Because for a long time, logistics costs have been a dead end of online product costs, mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the logistics cost itself is relatively high (generally between 8-10 yuan for the first weight); You have to pay multiple logistics fees when purchasing products (which makes many buyers feel at a loss). The large logistics plan can not only solve the problem of people paying only one logistics fee for cross-store purchases, but also reduce the total logistics cost due to nearby delivery, which will ultimately lead to a reduction in unit product logistics costs. It is said that after the promotion of the big logistics plan, free shipping for Taobao online shopping will be normal.

Third, pay attention to the timely management of logistics information.

At present, my country's express delivery still has a large proportion of mis-delivery, mis-delivery and multiple deliveries due to no one to receive it. This not only brings great losses to the express delivery company, but also causes some online stores to lose money. and customers, and this phenomenon is mostly caused by errors and untimeliness of logistics information. If during the logistics processing process, the logistics information in the supply chain can be obtained and updated in a timely manner through monitoring, barcode scanning and other technologies, and the information can be transmitted in a timely manner to the user's mobile communication device, such as a mobile phone, through the logistics processing platform, in the form of mobile phone text messages Sending product logistics information to users in a timely manner can better ensure that users receive goods at the accurate time and location. This not only improves the accuracy and timeliness of express delivery, but also improves the service level of logistics.

Fourth, introduce some internationally renowned express companies among logistics service providers.

At present, my country’s domestic express companies are far from international express companies in terms of speed and service level. However, some special products, such as expensive ones or products with a short shelf life, are still There is a great need for such logistics services. The introduction of international logistics can not only meet the diverse needs of customers, but also lay the foundation for Taobao to move into the international market.

The development of Taobao logistics has always attracted much attention. It is hoped that Taobao will not only solve the problem of rapid information flow and capital flow, but also integrate logistics to achieve a three-stream merged e-commerce.

Expand the impact of e-commerce on logistics

1. Logistics plays an important role in ensuring the development of e-commerce

(1) Logistics is an important component of e-commerce part. The main body of e-commerce is business, which inevitably involves the process of currency payment, information transmission, and transfer of commodity ownership, that is, the integration of business flow, capital transfer, information flow, and logistics. The first three streams can all be realized through computers and network communication equipment. As the most special logistics among the four streams, only a few goods and services such as electronic publications and information consultation can be directly transmitted through the network. Others cannot be realized online. This needs to be achieved with the help of a series of mechanized and automated tool transmissions.

(2) Logistics is a key factor in the success or failure of physical e-commerce. E-commerce can relatively easily solve the transfer problems of information flow, business flow, and capital flow through fast and efficient information processing methods. The timely delivery of physical goods to customers is to realize the spatial transfer of goods and successfully carry out logistics distribution. Marks the end of an e-commerce transaction. The development of modern logistics is a key factor in the success or failure of physical e-commerce.

(3) Logistics is the guarantee for e-commerce to realize the "customer-centered" concept. Realizing the concept of "customer-centric" is an important strategic goal of modern enterprises.

With the support of modern logistics technology, e-commerce has facilitated end customers to the greatest extent. They can browse, select and complete their shopping process through the Internet just by sitting at home.

2. E-commerce’s demand for logistics

(1) Logistics development must adapt to the decentralized characteristics of e-commerce. E-commerce affects the development of logistics. E-commerce affects the development of logistics. Affected by the widespread physical distribution of the Internet, e-commerce customers have distinct geographical dispersion characteristics. This characteristic requires logistics to adapt to their needs and have the ability to reasonably organize delivery within a limited time. Therefore, companies must adopt different logistics service strategies for different sales areas.

(2) Logistics services are more personalized. Providing personalized logistics services is an important manifestation of the "customer-centric" concept of e-commerce. E-commerce logistics requires logistics suppliers to provide a full range of services, that is, in addition to traditional logistics links such as warehousing and transportation, personalized services based on customer needs are added. These personalized logistics services include not only customers' individual needs for commodity packaging, delivery time, and location from logistics suppliers, but also value-added services such as processing and storage provided by logistics suppliers.

(3) Logistics operations are more timely. One of the obvious advantages of e-commerce is convenience. This advantage not only refers to the convenience of customer shopping, but also refers to the convenience and speed of physical transfer. This requires efficient logistics to ensure the normal play of its advantages. If e-commerce companies want to win in the competition, they must emphasize their timeliness, which is also an important reflection of the level of e-commerce logistics operations.

3. Reasonable selection of logistics models to promote the development of e-commerce

In the e-commerce environment, the competitive advantage in the market is no longer the number of resources an enterprise has, but its ability to How many social resources can be mobilized, coordinated and integrated to enhance one's market competitiveness. Flexible adoption of self-operated logistics and third-party logistics models is an important guarantee for e-commerce companies to effectively exert their competitiveness.

(1) Develop enterprise-operated logistics. Self-operated logistics is a model in which enterprises organize their own logistics and distribution by relying on their own equipment conditions and human resources. Whether logistics services are the core competitiveness and whether the self-built logistics system can fully exert its core functions is the key for e-commerce companies to consider whether to use this logistics model. Enterprises carry out e-commerce through self-operated logistics, which enhances the controllability of the logistics process, helps enterprises improve service quality, provide more personalized services, and improve transaction efficiency.

Enterprises can also use their own logistics systems to undertake the logistics and distribution business of other enterprises and merchants, thereby reducing idleness and waste of resources, achieving scale effects in network distribution, and achieving low-cost, high-efficiency distribution.

However, due to large investments and high costs, companies need to comprehensively consider their own strength and core competitiveness.

(2) Third-party logistics cooperation is a model in which logistics companies other than the supply and demand parties provide logistics services, which is third-party logistics. Third-party logistics companies have advanced logistics management experience, specialized logistics equipment and a wide range of information systems. From the perspective of building a national logistics system, e-commerce companies can consider hiring professional logistics companies to undertake e-commerce operations. Logistics distribution tasks or guiding corporate logistics reconstruction. Considering the long-term development of the enterprise, the enterprise should focus on establishing long-term strategic partnerships with professional logistics companies on an economically feasible basis, and strengthen the integration between inventory control, commodity in-transit information tracking, commodity sales information and services, and information systems. , realize the full sharing of business flow and logistics information from a higher level.

As a new transaction model in the Internet era, e-commerce has a profound impact on traditional transaction methods and consumption concepts. At the same time, the normal use of its advantages requires the support of modern logistics technology and management. The development of e-commerce puts forward the demand for "safer, more convenient and faster" modern logistics.