PopBox Asia Services has selected Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications that helps companies accelerate their digital transformation to improve their last-mile delivery process in Indonesia. E-commerce companies such as Lazada, Zalora, Herbalife, Blibli, FMCG brands such as Coca-Cola, Indofood, and courier companies such as Pos Malaysia and Ninja Express, GDEx and many more are customers of PopBox Asia.
The company communicates with customers on Indonesia’s top mobile app, notifying package deliveries using Vonage’s Messages API, integrated directly with the WhatsApp Business solution. The API will send the message through alternative channels, such as SMS if the message delivery is unsuccessful via this channel. The transition from SMS to WhatsApp notifications was vital as it worked during the pandemic to meet the increased demand for parcel deliveries.
“We are seeing a rise in parcel deliveries, especially during this pandemic time. This has accelerated the need for PopBox Asia to better connect and communicate with our customers through fast and reliable means. The unreliable delivery rate of SMS messages in Indonesia posed a challenge for us,” said Greta Bunawan, COO of PopBox Asia.
“The Vonage Messages and Dispatch APIs, embedded within our system, overcomes the barrier of undelivered messages. Since migrating to WhatsApp, we have seen a message delivery success rate of over 86 per cent. To date, we have served hundreds of thousands of users through WhatsApp, helping us reduce escalating SMS costs, lowering the number of contact centre interactions and ultimately, improving customer service quality. With this successful implementation, we are confident of rolling out WhatsApp notifications for users in Malaysia as well.”
The pandemic of Covid-19 prompted e-commerce companies to emerge as essential services. There has been an increase in sales volume for e-commerce platforms in Indonesia. While most companies have seen a decline, a survey by management consulting firm Redseer showed that Indonesia’s e-commerce growth trajectory would remain positive with an expected 50 per cent growth year-on-year, reaching US$35 billion this year.
According to the iPrice Group, online shopping traffic in the region increased by up to 60% in April and May, leading to increased parcel volumes in most ASEAN markets. During the pandemic, motion control measures meant that shippers worked shorter hours and deliveries took longer. Parcel lockers have become a go-to solution, allowing delivery services to be quicker and more flexible while minimising direct contact between staff and customers.
Indonesia’s first smart locker operator is PopBox Asia. The company handles an average of nearly 100,000 monthly deliveries to its smart lockers, which are located across Indonesia and Malaysia in over 350 locations.
“We understand the challenges faced by businesses in our region to communicate with their customers seamlessly,” said Sunny Rao, Vonage Senior Vice President, API Global Sales. “We are proud that Vonage has been able to help PopBox Asia create a richer, more engaging customer experience through simple, reliable multi-channel messaging while meeting the increased demand in parcel deliveries amidst the pandemic.”
With an ever-growing network of more than one million registered developers, the Vonage Communications Platform makes it easy for businesses to use APIs to disrupt their industries. At the same time, it enables the type of business continuity, remote work, and small service delivery vital in today’s environment. Vonage’s platform, through its partners, is at the centre of many notable transformation projects in the APAC region and, de facto, for start-ups.
