E-commerce has proven the fact that people can comfortably shop for goods and have them delivered to their doorsteps, according to a delivery platform Shiprazor.
Courier services, also according to the firm, have seen a huge improvement in business for enterprises in the country.
However, the US-based firm which tapped the Kenyan market in 2022, says the country lacks a centralised manual management system for local deliveries.
“There lacks one platform to manage both domestic and international deliveries,” says the firm’s CEO Sahil Affriya.
He adds that there is also lack of transparency of prices and seamless integrations with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
Erp is a software used by organisations to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management, compliance and supply chain operations.
It is on these bases Affriya says the firm decided to set foot in the country as an open market to partner with local courier services that do last-mile deliveries, to foster seamlessness in the operations for both local and international orders and deliveries.
“Through our platform, clients and businesses can log in free and choose their preferred delivery partner,” Affriya says.
It lists courier services based on fees, reliability and location.
Therefore, clients and businesses can choose what best suits them when they want anything delivered.
Basically, Shiprazor links the clients with variety of courier services under one platform.
Courier service market has great potential in developing countries' economic growth prospects, with a report showing it had a market capitalisation of $381 billion (Sh55 trillion) in 2021 globally.
The 2022 market report by BusinessWire further estimates its market share to reach $658.3 billion (Sh95.1 trillion) by 2031.
This is with a 5.7 per cent growth rate from last year to 2031.
"This will be on the back of a significant rise in online-commerce retail sales, coupled with growth in online fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG)," the report reads.
Furthermore, the rise in seaborne pharmaceutical transportation is a major factor that drives the growth of the healthcare segment in the courier services industry.
Despite the growth projection, the report says poor infrastructure and higher logistics costs are hampering the growth of the market.
Shiprazor recently entered into an agreement with the Standard Group Courier services for streamlined service provision and further tap into the growing demand for effective deliveries under e-commerce.
Other delivery companies it is in partnership with include Bolt, Quatrix, Little app, Uber, DHL, FastWay and DSP laser.