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GoJavas, a logistics service provider in the e-commerce space, has introduced a ‘try-before-you-buy’ experience in e-retail transactions. In this, the delivery boys wait at the customer’s house till the customer tries out the product before accepting or returning it.
But, with the company charging a 30-40 per cent premium for such service, the response has been mixed. This service has already been adopted by Lenskart.com , which sends frames to customers who try them out before giving a go-ahead. The frames are then transported back, after which spectacles with lenses are delivered.
Opportunity costExplaining the higher pricing for such a service against what the company would charge as basic delivery, Vijay Ghatge, Chief Operating Officer of GoJavas, said, “In such a service, the delivery staff has to wait longer at each household. So, there is an opportunity cost attached as this time could be utilised to cover other households.”
“A slight variation of the try-before-you-buy service – Go Open – has been adopted by Jabong and DonebyNone, which basically allows customers to open the packets before making payments,” said Ghatge.
GoJavas, which started with 20 delivery boys in December 2011, had 1,200 delivery staff in 50 cities a year ago. This year, GoJavas has 2,800-3,000 delivery staff in 105-107 cities. The last mile delivery staffbring their own vehicle and are on the rolls of the manpower service provider. Ghatge admits the extent of “breaches” have increased due to a sharp increase in orders this festival season, when several players brought in discount sales.
“Despite us scaling up our facilities, the capacity was not enough to handle the rush, which basically resulted in delayed deliveries. Airport capacities were also choked,” said Ghatge.
To deal with the increase in traffic, consumers are being “under-promised and over-delivered”, he said. “We tell customers that deliveries will happen in 4-5 days, while actually they are delivered earlier. However, once a packet is stuck at an airport, it gets into a loop and gets further delayed as they do not operate with first-in-first-out principle,” said Ghatge.
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