Digital Era Is Here: Know Top 5 Trends That Redefine Freight Forwarding As We Know It

Thanks to digitization, the freight forwarding industry is about to experience a complete transformation. Here are the top trends in the market that one must know about to maintain their foothold in the industry.

Beyond the land and skies, the wave of digitization has hit the sea and redefined the freight forwarders. From suppliers to customers, every part of the supply chain has swept away by advanced digital technologies. These digital technologies have the potential to dramatically improve operational efficiency and enhance the customer experience. In fact, those who were hoping that the advent of the innovative technologies in the industry to be a phase, now are reluctantly transforming themselves to maintain their foothold in the market.

According to Allied Market Research, the recent growth in the freight forwarding market is because of the high demand for low-cost shipping and incessant need to respond quickly with logistic solutions. The last year was favorable for the freight forwarding industry and the future is certainly bright for the market players. Here are some of the major trends that one must expect in the coming future.

Online booking

Booking flights and hotels online was just a beginning of digitization. The trend has hit the freight forwarding market too. What’s more, the massive surge in online bookings that happened over the last few years has forced market players to introduce online booking and quotation solutions. Moreover, the demand for transparency has increased every day and there is a significant increase in the advent of digital systems that enable customers to sign contracts electronically.

More attention toward cybersecurity

It is rather obvious that freight forwarders had to address the threat of cybercriminals. Just like any other enterprise and business, freight forwarders have to pay attention to the company’s data security measures. Even small loopholes in cloud security could bring down the company’s business and cause grave damage to the company’s bottom line.

Emergence of blockchain

Although blockchain was developed for virtual currency, it finds applications in more than one industry, including freight forwarding. The advent of blockchain would transform the freight forwarding industry as we know it. With the incorporation of blockchain, freight forwarders could enhance conventional processes, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. What’s more, it offers traceability and ability to verify transactions during the shipment. Blockchain offers complete transparency as customers could trace the origin of the shipment and place of the warehouse.

Customer comes first approach

Until now, the freight forwarding industry has given priority to the process. However, thanks to globalization, even smaller businesses demand international shipping services. Thus, freight forwarders had to wave goodbye to their traditional approach and welcome the modern approach that prefers customers before everything. Furthermore, digitization has already given novel tools to develop better customer relationships.

Advent of cloud-based solutions

Thanks to 5G infrastructure and its rapid adoption, the market is bound to get more momentum. Especially with the increase in the introduction of the Internet of Things, freight forwarders now can offer their customers new facilities. With the use of cloud-based solutions, the freight forwarders would experience increase in productivity as colossal data regarding private fleets would be at their disposal and they could reposition empty containers accordingly and increase profits and productivity.  

Related Post