Creating Value in International Logistics
A strategy playbook for moving beyond price wars—anchored in Perfect Orders, transparent operations, and reliability as a premium.
- Compete on reliability, not price.
- Make operations transparent end‑to‑end.
- Proactive communication over reactive support.
- Adopt Perfect Order Percentage (POP) as North Star.
- Tiered services and data‑driven carrier routing.
Introduction
Current players in the international logistics market are differentiating only on the basis of price only and it is a race to the bottom, creating a terrible experience for customers and unsustainable margins for businesses. To move away from this, we need a fundamental shift from being a low-cost commodity to a high-value high margin business
My analysis and proposed strategy can be broken down into four parts:
- The Current Industry Positioning
- The Core Problem Analysis
- The Strategic Shift & North Star Metric
- Strategic Roadmap
1. How the Industry is Positioned Right Now
The Indian international courier aggregator market is currently in a state of high fragmentation and low differentiation, it mirrors the Indian insurance industry in the early 2000s.
- Commoditization: The service is treated as a commodity where the only perceived differentiator is the price. This creates intense price wars.
- Operational Opacity (The “Black Box”): Customers have almost no visibility into what happens after their parcel is picked up. Operations are manual, non-standardized, and lack technological oversight.
- Reactive, Not Proactive: The business model is designed to react to problems (and often fails at that) rather than preventing them.
- Eroded Trust: Because price is the only lever, companies have cut costs in the most critical areas: technology, operations, and customer support. Analysis of customer reviews on Reddit, Google and JustDial clearly show a complete breakdown of customer trust.
The outcome is predictable unsustainable margins and poor customer retention. When price is the only differentiator, customers switch easily and loyalty becomes impossible.
2. The Core Problem Analysis
The current international logistics ecosystem mirrors the old LIC era of the Indian insurance market—paper-heavy, agent-driven, and painfully slow. Customers submitted claims and waited for weeks, uncertain of what was happening.
The same symptoms are visible in logistics today.
- The Black Box of Operations: Customers complain about delays, stuck parcels, and fake delivery attempts because they have zero visibility or control.
- Lack of Proper Channel of Communication: The universal complaint of unreachable support highlights a model where customers are seen as a cost center. There is no proactive communication about delays, customs issues, or weight discrepancies.
- The Hidden Costs: Surprise charges for weight disputes, remote area charges and opaque billing practices are the final nail in the coffin for trust. It feels like a bait and switch.
Just as new-age insurers like Acko or Policybazaar transformed the market by digitizing, standardizing, and empowering the customer, logistics companies must follow the same playbook. They didn’t just put old processes online, they rebuilt them around transparency, speed, and self-service.
3. The Strategic Shift & The North Star Metric
The industry must shift focus from cost-saving to value creation, from “cheapest” to “most reliable.”
The new North Star Metric should not be the number of shipments or lowest cost per parcel. It should be the Perfect Order Percentage (POP).
Defining a “Perfect Order”
- Is picked up on the scheduled date
- Delivered within the committed SLA
- Generates zero customer-initiated support tickets
- Has no post-delivery billing discrepancies
Focusing on POP forces every department i.e Product, Operations, Finance, and Support to align toward delivering a seamless customer experience. Improving POP will systematically remove every pain point identified earlier and transform the industry from a low-cost aggregator into a trusted logistics partner.
4. A Phased Product & Strategic Roadmap to Fix the Industry
Here is how we translate this strategy into an actionable plan, focused on driving up our North Star Metric, the “Perfect Order Percentage”.
Phase 1: Build the Foundation of Trust & Transparency
Focus: Fix the broken customer experience before building anything new. Reliability is the real innovation here.
Product Initiative 1: The Mission Control Customer Dashboard.
Problem Solved: The Black Box of operations.
Solution:
- Real-time, granular shipment tracking that goes beyond vague statuses.
- Every milestone is visible: Pickup, Hub, Customs Submitted, On Flight, Destination Hub, Out for Delivery.
- Customers see what’s actually happening, eliminating uncertainty and anxiety.
Product Initiative 2: Proactive, Automated Notifications.
Problem Solved: Lack of Proper Channel of Communication.
Solution:
- Event-driven alerts for delays or exceptions (e.g., parcel stuck >48 hours).
- Clear messages explaining cause and revised ETA.
- SLA-defined checkpoints for every stage, supported by dashboards for internal monitoring. This turns delays into trust-building moments through proactive communication.
Product Initiative 3: Transparency in Billing.
Problem Solved: The ‘Ambush of Hidden Costs’.
Solution:
- Every weight discrepancy must include proof photo of parcel on the scale, dimension image, timestamped system log.
- Remote area fees, handling charges, and serviceable pin codes are transparently shown at booking.
Phase 2: Differentiate & Monetize Reliability
Once the service becomes predictable and trustworthy, reliability itself becomes a premium product.
Strategic Initiative 1: Introduce Service Tiers
- Economy: Our new, reliable standard service with baseline SLAs.
- Premium Shipping: A premium tier for a 15–20% price increase that offers an “On-Time Delivery Guarantee.” If we miss the SLA, the customer gets a x% shipping credit. We are now selling peace of mind, not just a low price.
Note — Such service tiers are there but there is hardly any difference in service between them.
Strategic Initiative 2: Data-Driven Carrier Performance
Problem Solved: Inconsistent performance of third-party partners.
Solution:
- Build an internal carrier performance scorecard by lane (e.g., Delhi → New York).
- Automatically route premium shipments to the most reliable partner, not the cheapest.
- Reliability becomes algorithmic, not anecdotal.
Strategic Initiative 3: A Self-Serve Resolution Portal
Problem Solved: Inefficient human-led support.
Solution:
- AI Chatbot: An internally-trained LLM assistant instantly answers queries like “Where is my parcel?”, “Why was I charged extra weight?”, or “When will I get my refund?” pulling data from tracking, billing, and claims APIs.
- For claims, we build a simple, online form where customers can upload evidence and track the status of their claim from Submitted to Approved to Refunded, just like a modern insurance company.
Conclusion
While competitors fight in a price war, this strategy builds a premium, high-trust brand anchored in reliability, transparency, and accountability.
Customers will no longer choose the service because it’s the cheapest—they will choose it because it gives them the highest probability of a Perfect Order and peace of mind worth paying for.