Extensive SWOT Analysis of Xpressbees – An Indian Logistics Service Provider

Quick Stats on Xpressbees

Founder	Amitava Saha
Year Founded	2015
Origin	Pune, Maharashtra
No. of Employees	2,515
Company Type	Private
Market Cap	$ 276.5 Million
Annual Revenue	$ 5.4 Billion (2019)
Net Income/ Profit	$ 1.2 Billion (2019)

 

Products & Servies by Xpressbees

                                    (Source: Xpressbees)

• B2C Express
• B2B Express
• Cross-border Logistics
• 3PL (Third Party Logistics)
• Shipment Tracking
• Same Day Delivery for selected products

Competitors of Xpressbees

• Delhivery
• Ecom Express
• Future Supply Chain
• Ekart Logistics
• DTDC
• DHL
• Blue Dart

After understanding the core of the company, let us now proceed to the SWOT analysis of Xpressbees. 

SWOT Analysis of Xpressbees

A SWOT Analysis is a summary of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This method allows an organisation to get a clear picture of their current market position and compare its performance to its competitors. It serves as a base for planning marketing strategies to improve and meet organizational goals, both short term and long term.

To better understand the SWOT analysis of Xpressbees, refer to the infographic below:

So let us first start by looking at the strengths of Xpressbees from the SWOT analysis of Xpressbees.

Strengths of Xpressbees

Strengths refer to the characteristics and capabilities that differentiate an organization from others in its target market and help maximize market share, customer base and eventually the profits of the organization. Following are the strengths of Xpressbees:

• Huge Investments & Business From Foreign Companies: Alibaba Group, a Chinese E-commerce giant has invested more than INR 2.3 Billion in Xpressbees. This means that Xpressbees works for many other companies funded by the Alibaba Group.
• More Capital Efficiency: The company has 3.5-4X more capital efficiency than its competitors.
• Huge Market Share: In the pin codes that they currently cater to, they hold a bigger load than their competitors.
• OPEX Variable Cost Model: Xpressbees uses Operating Expenses (OPEX) driven variable cost model instead of a Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) driven fixed cost model.
• Try & Buy Service: Xpressbees offers their potential clients the try & buy service, this allows them to build credibility with them which in turn leads to long-lasting partnerships. 
• 24×7 Availability: Xpressbees allows their customers to track orders at any given point of time and day. Not just this they offer 24×7 customer support to report any issues.
• Diverse Portfolio: Xpressbees has a diverse portfolio containing clients from industries like e-commerce, pharma and healthcare, banking and finance, heavy machinery and manufacturing, food and groceries, automotive and auto parts and consumer goods.
• Wide Network:  Xpressbees has its services all over the world in more than 2500+ cities, connected with 52+ airports and over 100 hubs.

Weaknesses of Xpressbees

Weaknesses refer to the characteristics of a brand or an organization that needs to be improved. The weaknesses of Xpressbees are stated as below:

• Labour-Intensive Industry: The logistics industry is dependent on people and is, therefore, a labour-intensive industry. This dependence on people makes it exhausting for the company to manage regular training of delivery partners and performance-based appraisals. 
• Less Visibility in the Global Market: Xpressbees is lesser-known as compared to the global players. Xpressbees need to work on their brand visibility to compete against other logistics giants in the international markets.
• Lack of Training: Lack of training to delivery partners is a critical issue as they are the ones who meet the customers in person and hence are the face of the company.
• Huge Operational Costs: Operating a business in the logistics industry requires big amounts of operational costs from time to time to keep the business process going.
• Changes in Technology: It requires frequent changes in technology as new and better technology comes up now and then. It gets both difficult to train people and an expensive affair to bring in changes in the technology used frequently.

Opportunities for Xpressbees

Opportunities refer to the areas where the organization can use its full potential to increase sales and maximize profits shortly.

• Investment in Technology: Investing in good and modern technology provides many opportunities for a brand. Machine learning and data science are booming, brands can utilize them to back their product development and enhancement process. Xpressbees can develop software that enables faster goods clearance saving time.
• Acquisition Synergies: Acquisitions are a good way of expanding an ongoing business with the help of another one by utilizing its resources. 
• Consolidate Position in the Market: The company should look forward to consolidating its position in warehousing and cross-border logistics by providing end-to-end cross-border supply chain solutions.
• New Fulfilment Centres: The company plans to open fulfilment centres across China, and then to South East Asia and the Middle East. 
• Entering Rural Market: The majority of India’s population still lives in the rural parts making it a huge and untapped market as there are not many international logistic players that have entered it. 
• Increase in Cross-border Trade: The rise in the global manufacturing of goods will lead to a rise in the transportation of goods. This will provide more and more opportunities to the logistics industry and the companies dealing in that industry.

Threats to Xpressbees

Threats refer to the external factors outside of an organization that affects the performance of the brand or the organization. Possible threats to Xpressbees are as follows:

• Political Unrest: Political unrest like riots and protests lead to injuries to delivery partners and cause damage to the goods that are to be delivered.
• International Competition: Xpressbees faces intense competition from big international players like DTDC, DHL, Future Supply Chain and many more.
• Change in Consumer Trends: There is a constant change in the taste and preferences of consumer goods. Some goods go out of trends real fast and dealing with them would mean incurring losses.
• Increase in Fuel Rates: Increasing fuel rates globally lead to a rise in operational costs.
• Country-specific Regulations: Each country has a different set of rules and regulations regarding the transportation of goods. Some goods have very strict restrictions in some countries making it difficult to transport them. 
• Currency Fluctuations: A company dealing in multiple countries has to constantly deal with currency conversations. Constant fluctuations in these make it difficult for calculations.

This ends our extensive SWOT analysis of Xpressbees. Let us conclude our learning below.