Why Indian post not used so extensively for delivery services by Ecommerce companies?

The beginning of the postal system in India is believed to be from 1 October 1854. Lord Dalhousie is considered to be the father of the postal system. But after the advent of e-commerce platforms Amazon and Flipkart, Indian Post has gone out of the mainstream. What is the problem that people are no longer using Indian Post, which is spread across India from rural areas to cities and hilly inaccessible areas.

Let us know about the reasons due to which the relevance of Indian Post has decreased

(1) Takes time to deliver

• Whenever a product comes from Indian Post, it takes up to 10 days to reach the consumer. On the other hand, e-commerce websites Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, Snapdeal deliver the product in 2 to 4 days. The e-commerce website delivers in metropolitan cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata in just one day.  Although Indian Post has improved its services, it is still unable to compete with e-commerce websites like Flipkart and Amazon.

(2) There is a problem in tracking

• One of the biggest problems of Indian Post is that when a consumer sends a product by speed post or registered post, then when he tracks it with the tracking ID of that product, the server of the website goes down or it takes time to load the website. On the other hand, there is no problem in tracking e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart, the consumer can easily track it.

(3) Customer-friendly service is not available

• When a customer purchases a product from e-commerce websites Myntra, Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart, then the payment option isavailable. In payment, you either pay at the time of product purchase or cash on delivery after receiving the product. If we talk about Indian Post, this facility is not available in it.  You will have to make payment in advance, that is why customers prefer to come more towards e-commerce websites.

(4) Does not take customer’s interests into consideration

• People do not use Indian post because it does not take customer’s interests into consideration i.e. if you are ordering a product and it gets damaged in between, then there is no guarantee of Indian post. On the other hand, e-commerce websites take guarantee if the product gets damaged in between. These e-commerce websites work keeping in mind the interests of the customers so that they get good feedback. They also keep improving their service according to time. So that customers keep getting quality service. On the other hand, Indian post does not give preference to the interests of the customers.

(5) Indian post Vs Private Courier

• One problem of Indian post is that it does not provide insurance facility while couriering. Due to which the consumer has this fear that if his product gets damaged somewhere on the way, who will compensate for it. But on the other hand, private courier companies likeDTDC, Delhivery, Parcelog, Blue Dart promise to deliver the product at a fast speed along with the facility of insurance.

(6) Last-Mile API Integration

By integrating an API, partners/clients are able to track and manage their orders on their website itself. Almost all private courier and parcel companies have this feature. The postal department should pay more attention to the development of an API and provide support to clients for installation, so they can check the real-time status on their website itself.

 Conclusion:

Indian Post’s network is spread to remote villages. But due to lack of technology and infrastructure, courier service providers like Blue Dart, DTC, Amazon, Flipkart are not able to compete. Due to which Indian Post has disappeared from the market. It is not being used much. That is why all the Indian Posts have been converted into Indian Post Payment Bank.