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Direct Link, established in Sweden in 1986, is a fully-owned subsidiary of PostNord and a leading provider of e-commerce, communication, and logistics solutions in the Nordic region.
In 2020, Direct Link made its foray into the Chinese market by establishing its local presence in Shanghai. In a strategic move, the company partnered with eTower, an e-commerce logistics collaborative SaaS platform under WallTech (Shanghai) Co, Ltd., as the system supplier for their cross-border e-commerce business.
In this week's eTower Observer, we delve into Direct Link's venture into the Chinese market, exploring the challenges Direct Link faced and the reasons they collaborate with eTower to address system integration obstacles.
Direct Link's journey into the Chinese market was not without hurdles
In the early stages, to rapidly gain a foothold in the Chinese market, Direct Link needed an all-encompassing interface with local shippers and e-commerce sellers.
However, cross-border e-commerce logistics involves dozens of challenges: a complicated chain, high standards, and numerous stakeholders.
Meanwhile, in 2020, China, as the world's leading exporter in cross-border e-commerce, was experiencing robust growth with an annual increase of more than 30%.
Such a gargantuan market has created three significant technical challenges for Direct Link:
Unstable system availability
Low response efficiency
Poor system integration ability
Therefore, relying solely on its headquarters' tech team to achieve the system integration objectives in such a short time frame was impractical for Direct Link.
At that time, Direct Link urgently needed a system supplier that not only had a solid understanding of the international parcel delivery business but also had firm roots in the Chinese market to meet its needs.
Direct Link Collaborated with eTower
After comprehensive research and evaluation, Direct Link ultimately chose eTower as its system supplier in the Asia-Pacific region.
Direct Link opted for eTower for two main reasons:
1. WallTech's China-based tech team possesses software development resources that greatly exceed the capabilities of Direct Link's tech team.
2. Over the past decade, WallTech has built substantial market experience and acquired in-depth knowledge of cross-border parcel deliveries. eTower had successfully helped several state-run postal enterprises with system integration, including Canada Post, Japan Post, and Australia Post.
Designed to handle large-scale transport segments and multiple participants, eTower's system boasts comprehensive functional modules that enable multi-party collaboration throughout the entire process.
The eTower system includes multiple functional modules, such as sorting station, account management, role management, financial management, and service configuration.
Additionally, it includes over 20 sub-modules for tasks like order placement, scanning, sorting, bagging, transportation, and exceptional delivery management. These sub-modules involve various entities such as senders, sorting stations, integrators, and dozens of minor tracking nodes like dispatch, destination country scanning, successful delivery, failed delivery, returns, and damaged parcels for streamlined management.
In next week's eTower Observer, we will detail the solution eTower provided for Direct Link and explore how eTower's system integration helped a Nordic-based company like Direct Link successfully navigate a complex market such as China, brimming with both opportunities and challenges.
About Direct Link
Established in 1986 with its headquarters in Sweden, Direct Link is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PostNord, the Nordic postal service. In 2020, the company expanded its operations to Shanghai. Leveraging its parent company's robust postal network in the Nordics, Direct Link has developed highly efficient, stable, and cost-effective cross-border e-commerce logistics solutions. These solutions are designed to meet the diverse needs of e-commerce enterprises of all sizes. They provide a range of services, including cross-border item delivery, returns management, customs, and VAT handling. Direct Link combines flexibility and stability to customize various logistics solutions for its clients.
About eTowerB2C
As one of WallTech's flagship products, eTowerB2C (or eTower) is dedicated to providing collaborative software solutions for cross-border e-commerce logistics.
By integrating with eTower, all parties involved in the cross-border e-commerce logistics chain can easily share data, leading to more efficient collaboration.
Since its launch in 2014, eTower has enjoyed nearly a decade of steady growth. It has now achieved platform-level integration with hundreds of global ecommerce platforms, ERP systems, transportation carriers, national postal companies, and courier companies.
It has also integrated with thousands of cross-border e-commerce sellers and e-commerce platforms like eBay, Wish, AliExpress, and Amazon, processing millions of orders daily.
eTower's current core capabilities include integrated scanning, weighing, measuring, automated sorting line adaptation, intelligent warnings for package exceptions, and intelligent cloud data analysis.
eTower has a wealth of experience in helping clients transform from labor-driven to technology-driven digital operations, and from data-driven services to smart services.
For more information about eTowerB2C's latest solutions for parcel logistics management, please visit our website: https://www.etowertech.com/parcel-logistics-management/
