Melbourne, April 27, 2023
This interview has been made by https://tickernews.co/appear-on-ticker-news-insight/in.
Lou Milicevic is Asendia Oceania's, Managing Director. He joined Ticker News Insight with Brittany Coles to discuss emerging trends in e-commerce and how a disrupter can help retailers.
How do you expect cross-border e-commerce to develop in the near future?
The market is growing huge. Recently, I saw some numbers where in Australia and New Zealand it’s estimated worth to be about 112 billion dollars and in Australia for example, 72% of online purchases last year came from overseas. So, the important thing for Asendia is to help the consumers get a really good experience on that, so that’s what we’re focusing on.
Asendia definitely is a powerhouse in the industry, but what’s on the pipeline for Asendia to support this during this time?
The good thing about Asendia is we have really been focusing on our network globally, and we actually opened up in 2019 in Australia and New Zealand, so just before COVID, so very bad timing for us.
As soon as we set up operations, flights were shut down so capacity just didn’t exist, so we spent the last couple of years setting up our network with our partners, doing a lot of rigorous testing, and making sure that once COVID was over, we had the capacity and we had flights opened up again and cargo space, that everything could work for us.
So exciting news for us is obviously our premium product which is e-PAQ Select which is tailor-made for the e-commerce user, was probably the only logistics company that has one product which focuses on the e-commerce industry. Unlike our competitors who possibly have e-commerce as an additional revenue stream, that’s all we do.
If you look at how we focus on the market, it's really about that last-mile experience. And we can tailor make a product to suit a particular retailer for their needs.
What are the challenges to face here right now, we’re past the Covid period so in the logistics space, what are you looking at now?
It really is about the customer experience. It's one of the reasons why I’m with the company as well because you do want to try to make sure you focus on that last mile, focus on the cross border, the customs clearance. And just try to make it as simple as possible, because it can be a little bit daunting buying stuff from overseas, you know with taxes and duties and imports.
So, how do you make it easier, how do you simplify it, and demystify the process in a lot of ways, so and with our experience and knowledge, that’s what we want to focus on.
For those retailers out there who perhaps don’t know what cross-border e-commerce means, can you tell us how it's really important to know the challenges and why it's so essential for business here in Australia?
There are a lot of challenges when it comes to cross-border. The biggest thing really is customs and trying to get things cleared.
Obviously, commercial line hold trying to get the right capacity at the right place at the right time, but also at a good price point.
So, a big challenge for us is trying to be as competitive as possible from a price point of view but then also offering a really good service and a fast service as possible as well.
You have launched an e-PAQ Select service, so what does this do in terms of cross-border logistics?
That’s the product that really focuses on items in anywhere between 250g up to 30kgs, and we think that’s the sweet spot for a lot of e-commerce.
Most of our parcels that we do deliver now, that ship globally, are less than 2.5-3kgs, but there has been a trend that it has been going up.
We have noticed some heavier-weight shipments going through as well, and it’s just making sure again, as I said, the issues with customs and getting any duties paid and getting that cleared, how do you facilitate payments for it and just make it simpler for the user.
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