Logistics groups supporting e-commerce in Singapore are beneath extra stress than ever, particularly with regards to efficient logistics value monitoring.
Buyer expectations are rising with sooner delivery home windows, broader regional attain, and aggressive worth factors.
However behind the scenes, logistics suppliers are juggling leaner groups, costlier transport, and extra complicated cross-border operations.
Summit has labored with logistics and operations leaders throughout Singapore, and what we’re seeing is evident: whereas e-commerce continues evolving, the infrastructure that helps it hasn’t stored tempo.
And as somebody who’s spent years on this area, I can say with confidence that what slows companies down isn’t an absence of demand — it’s the friction of their on a regular basis logistics processes.
What’s Slowing E-Commerce Logistics Down?
Singapore’s e-commerce logistics sector is rising by 15% yearly.
However with out smarter, sooner methods to trace and handle spend, many logistics companies threat rising their income whereas shrinking their earnings.
Margins in e-commerce logistics are brutally skinny, typically simply cents on the greenback.
For each parcel delivered, suppliers could earn lower than 2%. On this setting, logistics value monitoring and self-discipline is the distinction between staying afloat and falling behind.
But many logistics companies nonetheless wrestle with one elementary subject: visibility over their prices.
Cross-border logistics is messy. Every cargo entails freight prices, customs duties, third-party dealing with, and native transport, all of which range by nation, season, and even vendor.
By the point items transfer from a provider warehouse abroad to a consumer’s doorstep in Singapore, the true value has morphed past the unique estimate.
What’s worse is that these prices are scattered throughout completely different methods and departments.
Gas surcharges sit in driver logs. ERP toll charges come by means of messaging app receipts. Subcontractor prices get emailed in PDFs.
On the finish of the method, it’s only a patchwork of loosely maintained paperwork and poor logistics value monitoring.
Handbook processes make value management practically unattainable. Supply groups are unfold skinny throughout hubs, centered solely on getting parcels out.
Drivers typically delay expense claims attributable to lack of time or cell entry, whereas finance scrambles to reconcile receipts lengthy after margins have been eroded.
With out real-time oversight, overspending at a hub or subcontractor fee hikes slip by means of the cracks, and these micro-leaks quietly chip away at profitability earlier than anybody notices.
Multiply this throughout a number of nations, distributors, driver networks, and warehouse leases, and it’s straightforward to see how prices spiral.
It’s hardly ever anyone huge error, however reasonably the issues stem from lots of of small, neglected ones.
And in an business the place scaling up means multiplying each quantity and complexity, the operational cracks solely widen.
The place AI Workflow Automation Makes a Distinction
Sensible automation can’t exchange vehicles or drivers, however it may possibly dramatically enhance how logistics companies handle what occurs behind the wheel and throughout borders.
At Summit, we constructed our spend and workflow automation platform primarily based on the recurring ache factors logistics leaders face: scattered bills, delayed claims, bill overload, and an absence of real-time logistics value monitoring throughout the worth chain.
For cross-border logistics groups, an AI-driven platform may also help groups observe the true value of getting items from a provider’s warehouse abroad to a consumer’s supply hub in Singapore.
Past buy worth, this consists of freight, insurance coverage, customs duties, native dealing with, and taxes — all captured and consolidated in a single place.
This lets logistics suppliers cost shoppers extra precisely and keep away from hidden losses.
For these managing subcontractors or supply drivers, bills like gasoline, tolls, and parking can rapidly stack up.
The workflows permit drivers on the go to submit claims immediately without having to detour to the headquarters. This protects each time and overhead, whereas additionally bettering monetary traceability.
And for logistics firms managing giant volumes of invoices, from automobile leases to warehouse and supply hub leases, options like Summit’s vendor bill administration automate reconciliation, flag anomalies, and assist groups perceive the place every greenback goes.
You possibly can even observe spend by supply hub, driver group, or subcontractor to identify alternatives for financial savings throughout your operations.
In brief, when automations take out a lot of the guide processes, each transferring half turns into streamlined for companies the place each motion means cash.
Constructing a Stronger Logistics Spine Behind E-Commerce
E-commerce in Singapore is simply getting extra aggressive. Giants like Shopee and Lazada have raised the bar, and to maintain up, logistics suppliers want extra than simply manpower.
They want sharper value management, sooner approvals, and higher coordination throughout groups.
Probably the most profitable logistics leaders aren’t those with the most important fleets, they’re those with the clearest methods.
Those who can adapt rapidly when demand spikes, or when plans change in a single day.
That’s what Summit is right here to assist with the readability and automation wanted to maintain logistics transferring on the pace e-commerce calls for.
Featured picture: Edited by Fintech Information Singapore, primarily based on picture by noob through Freepik
