What are shippers in Latin America saying?
This is Hayim Paices, and I do research in LATAM to better understand shippers and to better understand e-commerce.
We've been interviewing small and new shippers in El Salvador and Guatemala to understand their needs better.
Three weeks ago, we interviewed 38 new shippers to discover their pain points when looking for a logistics agency to do business with.
These 38 shippers buy merchandise from the United States and China. They rely on the agencies in their country. These agencies are known as agents at the destination because the freight consolidator will ship the merchandise to the agent destinations.
The 38 shippers need help in getting basic questions answered. The shippers had between 15min to 30min conversations with the agent. We learned that the agent at the destination talked about the company's value and why they are the best instead of answering fundamental questions.
The agent at the destination used romance to obtain the shipper as a customer. In El Salvador, romance talk is known as casaca, technically Bull shit talk.
The 38 shippers would have trusted the agent at the destination if they had shared the Freight consolidator's address, the deconsolidation, the Costs of house B/L, and any extra cost that the merchandise may incur during the transit. Shippers want less casaca and more transparent information.
This is a wake-up call for agents at destinations in EL Salvador and Guatemala. Be more transparent with the information and stop using casaca to get more clients.
You can visit hpaices.com, where I talk about logistics in LATAM, and I am the creator of CasaEnvios.com, where we create software for shippers and agencies in LATAM.
