Delivering Success with Courier Service Franchise Business

With an annual growth rate of 25%, the Indian courier market is witnessing phenomenal growth and is estimated to surpass Rs 4,000 crores in the coming years. In the process, it is creating new avenues for both new entrepreneurs and existing agencies

The online marketplace is burgeoning in India as various new enterprises are joining the e-commerce bandwagon, the newest entrant being the Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance. The recent entry of the brand in the market space might have intensified the long-held battle amongst the giants of e-commerce, but the one industry that is benefitting the maximum out of these entries and conflicts is the courier industry

Express Delivery

Before the e-commerce boom, courier services were rarely demanded. Their routes were planned with small consignments and the speed of delivery was slower. This is because there was no online marketplace from where people could place orders. And when the concept of e-commerce was introduced for the very first time in the 1980s, no one would have thought that it will witness an outburst after three decades. It is only in the early 2000s that the e-commerce players have outnumbered themselves in the market, consequently creating a huge demand in courier services to make the deliveries happen. E-commerce has therefore created opportunities for the courier service market itself.

And it’s not just the e-commerce boom that has influenced the courier market but also the trends that are surfacing in the industry. The intense competition between e-commerce players is fuelled by the delivery process and the time taken to deliver the orders. Consumers are demanding for the fastest delivery and e-commerce players are placing their trust in courier services to be ahead of their competitors. For instance, express delivery – where products or documents are delivered in the minimum time – is yet another arena that has made the courier market more effective and demanded. Courier service firms such as Blue Dart are taking delivery services to the next level by providing one-day delivery to consumers.

Franchise Opportunities

To reach out to far-flung corners in a vast nation like India, taking a franchise model is quite a smart step. As courier companies deliver important parcels to diverse regions in the country, franchising can be the best mode for guaranteed delivery of the items. Opening courier offices in different regions is a time-consuming task and certainly more expensive than owning a franchised store. Franchising is therefore a win-win situation for both the franchiser and franchisees as both of them gain essential benefits from it. For instance, a franchisee in Delhi might have more knowledge of the interiors of Delhi than the CEO of the company who operates in Mumbai; therefore, the former will be able to make swift deliveries in Delhi than the latter.

This way, both franchiser and franchisee can carry out business operations easily and hence more efficiently. Although a courier service business generally does not require much of investment, with franchising, however, the cost efficiency increases multi-fold. A franchised outlet of an established courier service brand can be owned in just Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakhs for an area of 100 sq. feet and the expected return on investment is more than 20%. One can expect to achieve breakeven in just six months.

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