"Fulfilling Online Fashion And Footwear Orders Is A Core Element Of Our Business"
Asendia empowers businesses to expand globally, ensuring an optimised delivery experience for international shoppers. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, CEO-Global Returns Helen Scurfield discusses international e-commerce parcel delivery.
This interview is an extract by Shilpi Panjabi for Fibre2Fashion.
What makes Asendia unique in the cross-border commerce and delivery industry?
Asendia is a dynamic, agile provider of cross-border e-commerce logistics, catering to both local and global retailers and marketplaces. We aim to expand our solutions, offering new delivery destinations and methods supported by robust technology. Emphasising the importance of delivering on promises, we commit to maintaining high-quality solutions, ensuring on-time delivery, and investing significantly in technology for excellence. Sustainability is woven into our DNA. Recognising the international e-commerce industry’s reliance on air freight, we seek low impact ways to operate. We actively pursue low-carbon options and collaborate with green logistics innovations.
Crucially, our vision revolves around our people, the ‘Asendians’. Focusing on their engagement, support, and development ensures the successful execution of our strategies and exceptional service to our customers.
Ultimately, Asendia is a people-focused business, embodying values like friendliness and caring. These values are crucial in our customer interactions, where we acknowledge the importance of individuals meeting their needs. Our commitment to friendliness and care reinforces our trustworthiness, essential as we handle the delivery of goods worldwide on behalf of brand customers. We take the responsibility very seriously, aiming to be a safe pair of hands that customers genuinely appreciate.
How do you ensure that Asendia stays at the forefront of innovation in e-commerce parcel solutions?
Automation and AI play a pivotal role in enhancing productivity in the competitive e-commerce logistics market. Asendia’s successful implementation of automated sorting and six sophisticated robots at the Heathrow parcel processing centre, operational since March 2022, has significantly increased parcel throughput for e-commerce retailers. With a £2.5 million investment, benefits include achieved ROI targets, reduced employee stress during peak times, and the acquisition of new business based on improved reliability and speed.
As we expand globally, we plan to replicate these automated systems, with upcoming installations in our Chicago hub in the US next year. However, we emphasise maintaining flexibility to cater to the specific packaging and handling needs of retailers and avoiding potential pitfalls of over-automating operations that require specialised services.
Adapting to evolving shopper preferences, our innovations address the need for speed and affordability. For example, our e-PAQ range, launched three years ago, provides a diverse set of international parcel services. By offering different delivery price points and tailoring services to local preferences (e.g., cash on delivery in the Middle East), we empower retailers to meet customer needs, reduce carbon footprints, and manage profit margins.
Navigating the challenge of returns, we aggressively entered this space with new solutions in 2023. Our focus extends to reaching new global shoppers, emphasising ‘harder destinations’. We master new trade lanes, establish partner networks, and plan destination launches for 2024, potentially including South and Central America. Our commitment is to excel in expanding routes and serving diverse markets.
