Major Russian express operator SPSR Express is growing more than 20% and has upgraded itsservices with an expanded product portfolio to improve operational processes, reduce delivery
times, expand geographical coverage and increase the company’s customer orientation.Sergey Lapin, Deputy General Director at SPSR Express, told CEP-Research at the Post-Expo inBrussels last month: “We are now establishing and restructuring the product portfolio in the B2Bsegment. In this segment, we have been recording stable growth and our main efforts are focused onservice standardisation, improving the quality as well as cost-performance ratio for customers andmake the service faster. We are trying to further reduce delivery times by introducingtime-definite services, such as delivery before 10.00 and before 13.00.”
SPSR does not release information about its volumes or revenues. With a network of 200 officesacross Russia and 3,500 employees, the company operates a fleet of 950 vehicles delivering to 6,000regions. Its largest automated sorting centre with an area of 10,000 sqm has capacity to sort up to12,000 parcels a day.
From October onwards, SPSR has introduced new express services using animals’ and birds’ namesfor individual solutions instead of the standard ‘Express’ and ‘Economy’ denominations.
The former ‘Express-Document’ offering door-to-door delivery of important documents in A4-formathas been rebranded to ‘Colibri-Document’. The express delivery of documents and small parcels onthe next working day has been renamed to ‘Guepard-Express’ and also features time-definitesolutions ‘Guepard-Express 13’ and ‘Guepard-Express 18’. For slightly heavier shipments, customerscan use the ‘Pelican-Standard’ service. There are also various Economy services available differingaccording to content and weight such as ‘Pelican-Economy’, ‘Bison-Cargo’, Bison-Avia’ and ‘Freight’with longer delivery times.
Lapin highlighted the B2C segment as an emerging growth driver for SPSR with a countless numberof internet shops boosted by e-commerce and distance trade. “Our solutions for this booming segmentwhich was growing even during the crisis in 2008 by 20% are now in a developing stage and we aim torespond to everyone’s needs.
“For example, we are working on mobile solutions for couriers and ensuring that we areintegrated into the websites of the internet shops. This means that a customer ordering a deliveryonline can automatically plan the time of delivery best suitable for her/him. There is a link toour website and if the customer decides to ship the order with us, he/she chooses the day and thetime for the parcel to arrive. It is possible to track the status of the shipment at each stage ofdelivery including a message with the expected delivery time.”
In line with growing mobile commerce, the company is expanding its offering for Androidsmartphones with new mobile apps. “We plan to include the option for retailers to receive immediatefeedback when a customer returns his/her order such as ‘the colour didn’t fit’ which createsinteraction between the online shop and the customer.
“Usually, the courier knows the reason but this information rarely reaches the internet retailerconcerned as the parcel stays with the courier. The mobile app would allow us to collect thisinformation, analyse it and give feedback to the internet shops so they can provide alternativesolutions. For example, if the colour or size didn’t fit, customers would have the option tore-order the desired product the next day. These are options we are thinking about for the future.It is all about mobile apps right now.”
Highlighting parcel returns as an issue for internet shops, he stressed that SPSR is currentlyfocusing on analysing this issue for them to reduce the number of returns which is especially highwhen it comes to buying clothes online from fashion retailers.
“We offered to the market to temporarily get rid off of partial deliveries when the customerorders several sizes of the same product with the intention to keep only one or two that fit thebest sending the other ones back. Thereby, the courier has to wait for the customer to try theitems on and decide which ones to keep. It is certainly comfortable for the client who is likely tobuy the product but it also increases the number of returns. Therefore, we think that not offeringpartial delivery at all would be more efficient as the couriers save the time of waiting forcustomers which turns out to be cheaper for all parties at the end.”
A new service option the company is working on is giving customers the possibility of orderingfor credit. The terms have to be negotiated between the bank and the online shop. “This creditmethod is becoming quite popular. The main difficulty thereby is the identification of the enduser. The bank decides whether to give the credit to a particular client and our task is to deliverthe documents to the client, get the signature and transport this information reliably to thebank.”
Talking about competition, Lapin said that this is the strongest in Moscow and St. Petersburgwhere all kinds of operators try to come up with their own delivery solutions. But he highlightedSPSR’s extensive geographical coverage across the whole of Russia as its main advantage which makesthe company very competitive.
“Some companies organising delivery themselves to remain flexible might find that the costs fortheir special needs turn out to be too high in the end and that is when they would switch to aprofessional delivery provider like us for more universal services to keep the costs down,” Lapinexplained.
He added that express delivery is in general not required in the B2C segment. “What counts themost for the customers is reliability and predictability. It’s clear that an online shop requiresdelivery on the same day. But if an individual customer orders a book, for example, he usuallydoesn’t need it to arrive that very day.”
SPSR is developing its time-definite service adapting its product range. “This sets certainlimits, though. The more these kinds of limits, the higher the price is.”
Looking ahead, Lapin provided a positive outlook. “We are looking very optimistically to thefuture and expect to grow by more than 30% by the end of the year.”
Asked about the impact of the economic crisis on SPSR, he said that the only indicators are thereduced growth rates on the market in general. “But the level of our services penetrating theeconomy is quite low. Therefore, there is potential for us to multiply growth by 10-15 times in theupcoming years.”
“We are not aiming to provide the cheapest service but the best possible service in oursegment,” he concluded.
