The Future of E-commerce Logistics - Radoslav Krumov, Sameday Bulgaria

In this talk, Ardu Kumov, the CEO of Same Day Bulgaria, discusses the evolving landscape of e-commerce in Bulgaria and the increasing demands from customers for convenience, trackable deliveries, and cost-effectiveness. He highlights that while e-commerce is expected to grow, it comes with challenges such as meeting high customer expectations for delivery, which often leads to pressure on courier services. Kumov emphasizes the importance of improving efficiency in logistics, particularly in the first and last mile of delivery, which accounts for a significant portion of costs. He advocates for a shift towards out-of-home delivery solutions and urges online merchants to integrate multiple delivery methods to enhance customer satisfaction. By focusing on these strategies, companies can better meet the demands of modern consumers and improve their overall service.

It is good that uh you're a little bit more people than it was half an hour ago. So I'll be stimulated to give my best. So as it was said, I'm Ardu Kumov. I'm CEO of uh Same Day Bulgaria. Uh how to start? We are let's say partner of this beautiful event and uh we were invited here to to present ourself and I was thinking quite a

lot how to conduct this presentation because let's be honest uh in most of the cases uh on the next day on or day after tomorrow It's usually you don't remember what the people are telling you here. This is the situation. I have some experience on here and on your place. So I decided to have this approach uh to try to tell you couple of very simple simple

things, simple messages but to uh to present this message in a way uh you to not to forget to be a little bit more difficult to forget. So let's start. Actually, I will not stop here on this couple of slides which my colleagues prepared for us because uh they're trying to convince you that uh the uh e-commerce in Bulgaria has huge potential. It's going to grow. But

since you're here, you're already convinced about this. And also I guess that half of the speakers before me also prove this point of view. So let's assume that uh yeah the e-commerce just a second e-commerce in Bulgaria uh is going to This our assumption but this grow unfortunately comes with uh some demands from uh the customers which are that the customers what what they want they want

uh have very high expectations for convenience uh some trackable flexible deliveries uh and of course very very cheap which uh reminds me uh one very old joke uh construction company which offered very fast, very high quality and very cheap construction services and the customer should choose only two of these three features. So it's a little bit impossible to have very low price with uh this high technology

and uh uh quality service and unfortunately these more shipments which we are producing uh processing are coming with uh bigger demand for uh labor force. This is something on which I I would like to emphasize a little bit to lead you to the uh conclusion which uh I'd like you to remember today. we identify that the courier is the soft spot of delivery companies read it but

generally uh let's say that the couriers it seems that they are not superhumans you know they are humans like us that means that they want to pay attention to their families they want uh not to work in weekends they want to have eight hours working eight working hours in special instead instead of 12 working hours for example. So this comes with its cost. We have to pay

a lot and uh this is official data which my colleagues uh prepared for me. You see for this six years we almost not almost more than doubled the average gross monthly salary in these countries. And if I have to be more precise in our industry, it's even the spread is even bigger. And it's very interesting that this growth of the gross salary comes which comes with the

same career fee. I don't know how it is but I remember I approved very special offer for my previous company with uh 3.25 level for one parcel for delivering to address and I think last week I approved 3.4 for very big customer. What does it mean? It means that guys we have we pay not for delivery we pay we pay salaries and you see that the first

and last mile are responsible for twothirds of the cost of our cost and half of it is the labor cost how it is made it's strange we have to bankrupt but we we still haven't. So it comes with efficiency. This is the game changer and uh this is the way how I would like you to remember uh what I'm telling you now. The conclusion is going to

come a little bit later. Yeah. okay. Where is the music? [Music] This is the video one at the same courier. And by the way, this is real uh real measurement, real situation. The couer. Yeah. It's not exaggerated at all. By the way, uh in this specific case, this is the reality. Sometimes it's much more, sometimes it's less. It depends on the adoption of the specific locker we

have measured. But in this case, this is the game changer. The efficiency one parcel delivered for the same time, the same person. 27 parcel delivered. Good. And already next slide where there is no video. So we have no problems. Super. our couers because we have not very big density are making 50 60 home delivery parcels same cool per day. Same couer at the moment is delivering this

amount of parcels and I can tell you that there are periods of the year when one couer can deliver up to 1,000 parcels per day in lockers. this is the way how we have stable quality of this kind of service on very low price yeah besides besides this it more convenient for the to receive their their parcels there. You know u this is the other videos through

which I would like you to remember what I'm telling you. Please play the next video. Yeah, sometimes they catch us in very strange places. Hello, I'm the courier. Come downstairs or you have to go to couer office which is also a pain in the ass. Oh, sorry. Please play the other video. Okay, this is scenario but actually it's a quite uh quite possible situation. She's ready. Slight

difference, huh? Yeah. So this is here I finish uh to tell you one of the messages I would like you to remember with these videos. This is please use out of home solutions. Cheaper, better quality, more reliable, better experience for the receiver. Forget about this home delivery. And let's go a little bit further. My colleagues said that this is uh percentage of uh locker deliveries in this

country. This is just you know a slide to to show that this is the future. But there is something which another thing I want to tell you. Uh this is the second message for you. The second is that you know consumers want their online stores next door. Here is going uh yeah let's first first uh uh be proud of our uh how to say achievements. This is

the delivery points. We have easy boxes points and 7,500 delivery points the same day in the three countries. But here is something which uh maybe my colleagues are going to say it's a it's a heresy. This heresy is that I say that this is not enough. I I say that uh more is better. The more is better. The final the final uh goal is your your customer

the customer of the uh e merchant to be satisfied to have as many options as he has to have as he can obtain. So imagine something like this. No it's not it's not like this. Just a second. This is the old version of the presentation, dear guys. But you're going to get the idea. The idea is like this. You have one career company with which you you're

working with with let's say let's say you you're a customer of a comp with their 600 offices. Let's say that uh tomorrow you can integrate also our colleagues from Speedy with their almost 1,000 out ofome that uh you see box now let's say that you integrate Bulgarian post. Let's give to the customer the right to how their parcels should be delivered with which delivery method. So my

message to the e- merchant is the sec my second message is like this more is better integrate everyone all the delivery methods in your checkout don't be restrained with speedy with a with box style with us let the final customers Hello Katya let the final customer decide so these are the Two messages I have today for you and I hope through my presentation through this video and

through the technical problems to remember these messages. The first message is forget about home delivery. It is not reliable and it's expensive. Use out of home. Press your customers to choose out of home delivery. And second one second message is integrate as many delivery methods as there are available on the market. So actually dear colleagues uh this is the same for city of PL you know this

is the same for city of Sophia which is good for your customers. I think this so dear colleagues thank you very much for your attention and have a successful business. Thank