Case Study: how we have built global mail forwarding and delivery platform for medium business

Online shopping has grown exponentially. Its growth has been characterized by strong consumer demands and the increasing number and type of goods available online. Although goods delivery has represented a significant barrier to the uptake of online shopping, improvements in delivery services instill confidence among online consumers. Currently, logistics and warehousing providers are investing in infrastructure and improving their delivery processes to serve today’s connected consumers and their ever-growing expectations.

Client and Requirements

Our client is a US-based company with a global presence in mail and package forwarding services industry. The most crucial requirement for the client was to create a global mail forwarding and delivery platform that provides easy and efficient mail forwarding solutions for a wide range of businesses from all over the world. The client was looking for a reliable and experienced tech partner who would be able to deliver a successful and effective platform.

Project challenges when developing global mail forwarding and delivery platform

Let’s have a look at some challenges our software engineers faced but successfully handled.

• Our developers dealt successfully with the integration of shippers API's to cover as many countries as possible.
• The client insisted on creating customizable pages to manage and update content fast and simple.
• Our team came up against a problem of configuring automated billing system to charge customers.
• Our software engineers faced some challenges when integrating global mail forwarding and delivery platform with warehouse machines.

Our solutions when developing global mail forwarding and delivery platform

Let’s have a look at our provided solutions below:

• We used Scrum that allowed us to break a project into manageable pieces for effective completion of the project, and Kanban to visualize the development stages.
• Our team successfully integrated Django-cms to change the static pages content fast and easy.
• We created a virtual network using Azure web services to optimize servers load that helped to handle a large number of outgoing emails and customer requests.
• Our engineers created a user-friendly virtual mailbox interface that provides fast access to see physical emails/packages online.
• Authorize.Net payment processing solution was offered to accept credit card and e-check payments online, at retail, with mobile devices and more.
• The following technologies and tools were applied while global mail forwarding and delivery platform Python, Django, Celery, RabbitMq, jQuery, PostgreSQL, Authorize.Net API.

Key features of the global mail forwarding and delivery platform

Below you can read about the key features of the platform:

Virtual mailbox solution

With a virtual mailbox solution, you can see your physical mail online by displaying an exterior image of each piece of mail received in your mailbox online. It allows you to get your mail or package with all shipping details like sender’s name, weight, dimensions and tracking info; you can decide whether mail or package should be shredded, sent, or opened and scanned inside so you can see and read your mail or packages online.

With 24/7 access to your mail/packages online, you can add/delete/manage additional names, addresses, shipment schedules, payments on your account; ask for repacks and consolidation of items/shipments. This solution provides excellent opportunities to access, control and manage your mail/packages. Below you can see how virtual mailbox works:

E-mail notifications

Email notifications feature is a powerful driver of user engagement, retention, and growth. This feature helps users to be aware of all shipment information. Notifications are automatically sent by email to customers to confirm their order and give shipping updates allowing them to monitor and save time and money. Our team assured that the content of the notification reflected the unique and accurate situation.

Well-crafted pricing strategy

Our team helped to create an excellent pricing strategy based on in-depth market research. We have analyzed the target audience and found out the customers with specific requirements. With segmentation, we divided customers into subgroups with similar attributes and offered a variety of prices based on the type of customer making the purchase. Customer segmentation allowed us to personalize marketing messages to better communicate with different groups of customers.

We have offered the following plans: individual/family plan, business plan, international shoppers, corporate plans.

1. Individual/family plan includes a permanent US address, 24/7 access to your mail/items, secure, virtual online mailbox, images of all incoming items with details.

2. Business plan breaks down into standard plan, distribution plan, fulfillment plan.

• Standard plan includes a permanent US address for your business, personal name(s) onto account and access, all features of the family plan, 24/7 access to your mail/items, secure, virtual online mailbox.
• Distribution plan includes open and ship postage-ready items into US mail stream, control the 'sender' information on outgoing packages, return address service, all the features of the standard.
• Fulfillment plan includes an inventory management system, open and itemize packages for fulfillment, ship inventory orders, customized invoices for orders, custom shipping labels for orders, all features of the distribution plan.

3. Corporate plan includes a physical US address, virtual mailbox with 24/7 access, automatic forwarding and mailing schedules, all aspects of control and management.

4. International shoppers plan includes permanent US address, consolidation service, photos of your boxes, 100 U.S. dollar insurance on every box, track-me-home service, guaranteed delivery or your money back.

Scheduled shipment

This feature is necessary when you would like bulk mailing to save time and money, or want your packages/mail divide into more than one shipment, or if you are interested in shipping separately and arriving on different dates. With scheduled shipping feature, you tell us when you would like to receive your packages, and we will automatically collect, divide/consolidate and send your packages/mail.

Benefits of the global mail forwarding and delivery platform

Let’s have a look at how global mail forwarding and delivery platform beneficial for medium business.

• The platform allows international shoppers or businesses to eliminate liability and decrease the risk exposure to get stuck in customs because of an item in an expat's mail included in the same package.
• The platform allows you to avoid time-consuming and effortful processes involving your staff in handling expat mail and checking every piece of mail by outsourcing this function.
• The platform provides 24/7 real-time access to their customers’ mail and packages with the ability to be shipped at any time.
• The platform provides hassle-free mail management services from a state-of-the-art warehouse space with military grade data encryption and cloud storage.

Bottom line

DDI Development team has created great global mail forwarding and delivery platform that provides splendid opportunities for international shoppers and companies globally to see their mail and packages in real time or their scanned contents in a fast and easy way. If you have any questions or ideas, let us know, and we will help to turn them into excellent digital solutions that grow your business and gain more revenue.