Logistics became a key cog in e-commerce, essential to build buyer loyalty. Home delivery also makes room for other forms, such as picking up purchases at delivery points. The modalities of this system are explained in this report by David Reyes, Head of Business Development at HOP, a logistics company that applies it.

What is the vision you have, in general, of logistics applied to e-commerce?
It evolved a lot. A couple of years ago it was unthinkable to receive something you had bought the same day or the day before. That made people reluctant to buy something online that they could have at the moment by walking a few blocks. The evolution of logistics was already taking place, and in 2020 it went from being an improvement for e-commerce to being indispensable. Same-day or next-day deliveries appeared, as well as modalities such as delivery points.

One of the factors that the buyer looks at and compares are the shipping costs, which also have to do with the profitability of the logistics operator. What happens with this in the delivery point modality?
As in any business, the seller passes the cost of shipping to the buyer, except when free shipping can be provided. The delivery point model, due to the volume it handles, is less expensive than home delivery because instead of delivering 500 packages door to door for two days, they are delivered in one day and possibly at 10 predetermined points. Better rates and a benefit are obtained for the buyer, because a delivery at delivery points usually costs between 50% and 60% of what home delivery costs, even including a profit margin for the business that adheres to the system. For the buyer, not only cost matters, but also comfort. What are the times and possibilities given to pick up your package at the pick-up point? We say that the user does not have to stay at home waiting for the package, because the package waits for the user. We leave it at 8 in the morning at the pickup point and the buyer has a week to pick it up. We have a committed delivery time of 24 hours and a cross docking warehouse, where products enter, are organized for distribution and leave. The 24 hours are counted from the moment the seller delivers the product to us.

A survey from the United States revealed that buyers see a delay of 5 days as reasonable for non-essential products. It seems like a lot seeing the anxiety surrounding e-commerce in Argentina.
The time that the user is willing to wait for a purchase depends on the idiosyncrasies of each population. In our country, impatience is also different inside, because historically people were used to waiting. 10 years ago it was unthinkable that logistics could quickly take a package from Buenos Aires to Formosa and today, in 48 or 72 hours, you can take a package anywhere. Possibly to a user in the interior, 5 days may seem reasonable, while in AMBA the need is different and that is why delivery in 24 hours or on the same day is becoming more and more important.

Does the policy of charging an additional fee to receive the purchase faster apply in Argentina?
Some companies use it, especially traditional emails, which tend to take longer. Possibly in those cases an express delivery is double what a common delivery is.

What do they require from the business to be a delivery point?
The basic thing is that you have two square meters to store the packages, which have a lot of rotation. That is enough, because 95% withdraw their purchase on the first day and the total does not exceed the third. We prioritize points that are open to the public 7 x 24, or a period of one hour before and one hour after classic office hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and if they close at noon it is for as few hours as possible. It has to be a location on the street and we have transportation insurance, from the moment we receive the product from the seller until it is delivered to the buyer or, if the buyer does not pick it up, until we return it to the seller.

Por Rodolfo Pollini