E-commerce companies and brands looking to take their products to a global market work with a host of different partners to facilitate growth.
One of the most valuable of all is the "freight forwarder"—the intermediary between the company sending a shipment and the group or person receiving the goods at their final destination.
Demand for freight forwarding companies has increased in recent years due to the rise of the e-commerce industry and the expansive growth of globalization. Though these companies might not be responsible for carrying out shipments themselves, they're crucial to ensuring products can be transported to locations all over the world.
However, not all freight forwarding solutions are the same. Lately, the concept of the "online freight forwarder" has grown more appealing for companies looking to overcome complex logistics and supply chain issues with improved visibility, agility, and customer support.
Here's your guide to the benefits of online freight forwarding.
What is Online Freight Forwarding?
To fully grasp the benefits of working with an online freight forwarder, you first need to know how they work and how they differ from traditional freight forwarding companies. Freight forwarders, in all of their forms, are professional groups that use connections with carriers and partners in transportation to negotiate the transportation of goods across countries and borders.
Traditional freight forwarders often worked hand-in-hand with larger businesses, relying heavily on manual processes, paperwork, and consistent communication to arrange and manage shipments.
While these services worked well for some companies, they were also time-consuming to manage, complex, and often expensive. Smaller businesses, in particular, often struggled to leverage the support of freight forwarders, who focused their attention on larger brands.
Online freight forwarders take a slightly different approach to supporting the business supply chain. They offer digital platforms where companies can communicate with partners, access shipping quotes, and track the progress of their orders in real time through the web.
While different types of online freight forwarders offer different services, such as support with customs clearance, unique payment options, and document management tools, they all bring many aspects of the freight forwarding process into the digital landscape.
The Benefits of Working With an Online Freight Forwarder
As many companies have discovered in the past, traditional business processes that rely heavily on manual actions are time-consuming and prone to errors. As the supply chain grows more complex and customers demand faster shipments, traditional options are growing less reliable.
This is part of the reason the digital and online freight forwarding market is growing at a phenomenal rate (around 21.77% CAGR) and is expected to reach a value of $76.24 billion by 2028.
Though the benefits of working with an online freight forwarder can vary depending on the partner you choose, some of the most common advantages include:
1. Improved Customer Support (and Access to Additional Services)
Both traditional and online freight forwarders often work with large numbers of companies and partners on a daily basis, making it difficult to deliver consistent, bespoke support to each company. However, traditional freight forwarders can have more issues with customer service.
Unless your company is considered a priority to the brand you're working with, you could find it takes much longer to get answers to your questions via phone or email. Online freight forwarders generally give consumers more ways to access support, from self-service resources embedded into a platform to real-time 24/7 chat and messaging.
More importantly, some online freight forwarders go above and beyond with their approach to helping companies. Rather than just helping them to navigate the shipment process, they can help with everything from seeking or shipping insurance to managing customs.
2. Potential for Cost Savings
No freight forwarder has complete control over the cost charged for shipping products overseas or to different geographical locations. However, they do work with their partners to deliver preferred rates to their customers. Traditional freight forwarders can offer some fantastic deals to brands, but they often focus only on larger businesses, making it harder for SMBs to get the same offers.
Online freight forwarders can offer access to the same rates (or similar) to virtually every company, no matter its size or shipping method. Additionally, they offer online environments where you can compare real-time shipping quotes from all of the partners in their network.
This means businesses can rapidly see how much a shipment will cost without having to call multiple partners themselves. What's more, because online solutions offer tools for automating tasks (like booking shipments or monitoring order progress), they save companies money on operational costs.
3. Simplicity and Time Savings
One of the reasons automation and AI have become so crucial to businesses in recent years is that they allow companies to save significant amounts of time on various essential processes. With a traditional freight forwarder, companies would have to fill out forms manually, send paperwork to other businesses, and engage in various conversations for each shipment.
With an online freight forwarder, businesses can streamline various logistics processes. They can search for and review multiple quotes in seconds just by entering a few details into a platform.
The same platform makes it easy to arrange bookings, send payments, and monitor communications in one place. Saving time in these areas gives businesses more control over their busy schedule. What's more, it simplifies the process of managing the supply chain.
4. Improved Visibility
According to studies, tracking deliveries is one of the biggest problems many companies face when embarking on a plan for global expansion. With a traditional freight forwarder, companies would have to rely on their partner to provide them with updates on a shipment's whereabouts and status.
This could mean that by the time companies become aware of issues and delays, they end up with huge disruptions in their supply chain. To make matters worse, the traditional process makes it difficult to deliver real-time insights to customers. This is important at a time when 90% of consumers say they want to know where their packages are instantly.
Online freight forwarding solutions can offer real-time tracking solutions, which allow companies to see where their shipments are and proactively manage their supply chains. This makes it easier to rapidly address disruptions and deliver fantastic customer service.
5. Greater Scalability and Flexibility
Finally, as businesses continue to scale and grow, branching into new product segments and markets, their freight forwarding needs can change. Traditional freight forwarders can be limited in the solutions and routes they can offer to certain businesses.
Online freight forwarders, on the other hand, make it easy for businesses to adapt to the changes in their ecosystem. You can use online platforms to add new carriers, features, and services to your solution as needed, paving the way for rapid expansion.
Some companies can also make it simple to access additional services to facilitate growth, such as shipping insurance, financial support, or flexible payment terms.
Discovering the Benefits of Online Freight Forwarders
The digital transformation of the world is influencing everything from how we shop for products to how we run and manage business operations. An online freight forwarder could be the perfect solution for any business hoping to expand into new markets in the years ahead.
Offering a combination of simplicity, cost-savings, excellent customer service, visibility, and scalability, online freight forwarders are emerging as the future of logistics.
