YES Bank offers ‘smart box’ solution for e-comm deliveries

E-commerce players bleed money more in logistics than in the fabulous discounts they offer on various products.

Track a delivery boy who begins the day with about 30 consignments to be delivered. Given the traffic conditions and deplorable roads across most Indian metros that seems a stiff target. But wait, jams occur even while waiting for elevators to reach so many high-rise offices.

You can spend 15-20 minutes waiting for your turn to get into the right elevator. Imagine the delivery boy struggling up only to find the recipient out for lunch or some meeting. That’s another trip, more delays, more costs and lower margins — and, of course, more blood on e-commerce players.

What if, instead, there is a simple solution — where your package is delivered to a pre-designated pickup spot, close to your residence/office where you can go and pick up your package at your convenience — after swiping your card and paying the necessary amount? YES Bank is in the process of doing precisely that in tandem with some e-commerce players.

The solution they have come up with is a ‘smart box’ — a 10 feet by 3 feet box with about 52 compartments/lockers of various sizes — in which the parcels will be deposited. An SMS giving you the access code will be sent to your mobile. After swiping your card at the PoS (point-of-sale) machine kept near the smart box and making the payment, the designated compartment will open automatically and you can pick up your package.

Pilot in Delhi This is what the bank has installed as part of a pilot project in DMRC Delhi. The bank has deployed about 12 such boxes and PoS machines there and hopes to add another 125 by June. It plans to roll these out across other metros and have about 1,000 such machines across the country within a year.

Ritesh Pai, Senior President and Country Head, Digital Banking, YES Bank, said the bank has identified many high convergence areas, highly frequented, and high-density populated areas — such as corporate business parks, buildings, or high-end residential flats with 200-300 flats in one complex — typically the locations from where people order these consignments. Smart boxes will be put up with in-built payments functionality at these places, he said.

He explained, “Whenever you order your consignment, your e-commerce marketplace (for example, a Flipkart, Snapdeal or Amazon) will prompt you by saying, ‘By the way there is a smart box located nearby (based on your pin code). Would you like to opt for delivery there?’

“Now, if you agree, then the logistics guy will deliver it there (where it will remain for three days) and you will get an SMS alert and a one-time password to access the smart box.

“You can go there at your convenience, where there is a kiosk with an unmanned PoS machine. On the basis of your order number, the price is flashed, after which you swipe your card and key in your pin. The moment the payment is authorised, the box opens up and you can carry home your consignment.”

Win-win situation Ritesh says this is a win-win situation. Efficiency will improve, he says, counting on the fact that deliveries can now be done even at night. Importantly, e-commerce players will also get the money into their account within a day — instead of the average time of a week that it takes now. And customers need no longer experience the anxiety or guilt of missing the delivery boy.

Ritesh says the solution is being piloted with a couple of small websites and has started seeing success. Bigger e-commerce entities are expected to join in soon.

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