During the pandemic, the international parcel delivery company Venipak has increased its share of services to private customers from 15-20% to 45%. To maintain the growth trend, the company is expanding towards services for e-commerce businesses and automates its warehouses.
The radical transformation of business conditions over the past year led to an attitude change for companies providing last-mile delivery services. During the pandemic, international parcel delivery company Venipak, which had previously provided 80% of its services to business customers, increased its share of services to private clients up to 45% in the Baltic States.
The successful strategic transformation not only compensated for the contraction of business client activity during the difficult times but allowed for Venipak Group’s rapid revenue growth rate, which amounted to 20-25% in the last few years.
“Strategic changes have defined the adjustments of the company’s processes: we did a detailed analysis of our operation and invested in the development of parcel lockers and pick-up points. These measures continue to help with the changing nature of our service. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, average parcel size has decreased, while there are more deliveries to commuter towns. We also pay much more attention to courier training so we can maintain a high level of service quality despite larger workloads,” said Justas Šablinskas, CEO of Venipak Group.
Since market analysts predict further growth of the e-commerce market and the continued interest in online shopping, the parcel company anticipates the rapid growth of services to private customers.
According to Šablinskas, one of the essential steps in strengthening business and private customer experience is an investment in “Fulfillment” services. This way, instead of transporting the parcels from the store to the customer, the parcel delivery company receives, labels, packs, stores, and then sends the goods from the warehouse themselves.
The work of e-merchants is further facilitated by the integration with the parcel delivery company’s warehouse management system. It allows sellers to check their stock in real-time, monitor the progress of orders, receive reports on fulfilled orders, and predict sales trends. The buyers benefit from this too, as the “Fulfillment” center can start packing their purchase immediately after order confirmation.
“These types of services provide an opportunity to significantly speed up the process of transporting goods and improve the overall customer experience. However, the “Fulfillment” service is limited not only by the warehouse space as finding and preparing the goods for shipment quickly and error-free poses some considerable challenges. Because of this, we are currently optimizing the existing warehouses and investing 1.5 million euros to implement the state-of-the-art automation processes. These improvements will allow to serve up to 50% more e-commerce customers in the same warehouse area faster with higher quality,” said Šablinskas.
The scope of services aimed at e-commerce clients will be significantly expanded in Poland as well. The “Fulfillment” service warehouse in Warsaw will allow Baltic companies to do business much closer to the wider European market.
Currently, Venipak’s “Fulfillment” warehouse operates in Lithuania and serves customers across the Baltics. Despite the greater distances, purchases reach the clients in Latvia and Estonia as fast as they do in Lithuania – no later than 24 hours after accepting the order.
Due to the increasing popularity of e-commerce and the customers’ wish to pick up the goods as close to home as possible, this year the company will invest 3 million euros in the development of the parcel locker network. Most of the parcel lockers will be installed in Latvia and Lithuania, with 200 and 160 units to be available by the end of the year, respectively.
Meantime, the company continues to increase the range of other services too. Earlier this spring, it launched an improved e-commerce parcel return service and a brand new air freight shipping service.
“Continuous investment in the development and improvement of the company’s infrastructure and customer service is crucial to meet the needs of today’s market and prepare for the demands of tomorrow. By expanding our capacity, we will be able to meet customer expectations in this highly competitive market and maintain the company’s rapid growth, which exceeded 20% for several years in a row,” said the CEO.