Signed, sealed, delivered

Colleagues Shiva Mahadi, Sreenivas Saba and Shashi Shekhar were hard at work at a logistics company back in 2013 when it dawned on them that the biggest problem consumers had with the industry was its lack of transparency about prices. To make life easier for the end user, the trio brought friend Ajay Kumar on board and started eCourierz in September 2014 with help from Anna University and an initial investment of ₹50,000. This web portal is a platform where consumers can compare courier rates and make bookings for delivery in any part of the country or abroad, all in one place. Says Saba, “If there is a system online that helps users compare prices for travel bookings, why can’t we do the same for courier services?” 

The Bengaluru-based company lists the services of around 15 firms on its site and gets the best business from the metros. “It is actually the no.2 players who are keener on signing up,” adds Saba. eCourierz either links directly to the participating firms’ site or presents the tariffs on its own site. For its efforts, it gets 10-20% of the order size as commission if orders are placed through its site. “The corporate business has small margins and high volumes. So, we approach the retail market instead. Even so, commissions vary from case to case as companies allow us to undercut the price but not overprice the customer.” Even though it is yet to rake in profits, eCourierz seems to have achieved its target of making life easier for consumers.