The e-commerce sphere of Nepal has been burgeoning in a very fine shape. From thamel.com, the first e-commerce website that introduced the concept of e-commerce in Nepal by selling goats online, to the recent entry of local and global players such as kaymu.com, sastodeal.com, hamrobazaar.com, and other ecommerce players, the ever-evolving online retail market sure has boosted up significantly, and is moving onward and upward.

However, e-commerce businesses have not had an easy way up. From poor infrastructures, abysmal governmental plans and policies to lack of proper payment gateway, business have had to deal with great barriers. One such barrier has been in terms of delivery system. Sellers were having trouble finding the right and efficient way to get to their customers, and without the delivery system, an online retail store is sure to roll down the hill.

Running around from door to door for delivery and also handling the business concurrently can be very hectic. Finding the right people for delivery of the products is even more problematic. Lokendra Badu understood the growing scope of e-commerce and the demand and requirement for on-time delivery for such businesses in Nepal. Hence, with the aspiration of creating a one stop solution for all sorts of courier-related requirements for vendors and buyers, he came up with the idea of Nepal Express Delivery.

Nepal Express Delivery (NED) is a logistic company which basically associates the delivery services for online retail stores. Taking the importance of the sensitivity of products and their timely distribution in account, Nepal Express Delivery has set up a bold and steady delivery structure in Kathmandu and other central cities such as Birgunj, Itahari, Butwal, and so on. NED is a great team of visionary members who have a good understanding of optimizing delivery in different routes and have skills and technologies for addressing all kinds of logistic requirements of their clients.

Picking up the idea

The idea came about from the pain-points of two sides. From one side, online retail store owners found it very difficult managing their business while they rushed door to door doing the deliveries. On the other side, it made no sense to the buyers--who chose online shopping to omit the hassle of having to travel--if they had to travel all the way to the vendor to pick up their items. “Kathmandu is a chaotic city, and people here are always in a rush. They are busy with their office and household works and don’t have time to physically go to a store to buy things,” says Ajay Basnet, Managing Director at NED, “Besides, the hectic traffic, dirt and crowd of the city is always a trouble. Delivery seems to be a problem for both the vendors and the buyers. Thus, we decided on establishing a service-oriented delivery system for e-commerce to make it easier and more effective for the vendors, buyers and all the parties involved.”

The Speed Brakers

Of course, starting one of its kind delivery service was not a piece of cake for Lokendra and Ajay. Initially, dealing with financial matters and constraints was difficult for the team. Setting up an office, managing all the resources, getting employees on board, and other activities needed cold hard cash. That’s the same for every other startup.

What affected their venture mostly was the Kathmandu traffic. Because the traffic is always so heavy in Kathmandu, one rarely reaches in time, and this has caused delay in deliveries, leaving their service to be in question in terms of quality. “We can never tell our customers with complete surety when their products would be delivered because the traffic of Kathmandu is unpredictable,” says Ajay.

Current and future growth

Despite the challenges, NED has been booming. In only a period of nine to ten months, NED has transformed from being just an idea to a up and running business. Along with providing a systemised delivery solution to e-commerce businesses, they have also been involved in inbound and outbound courier services and delivering cargo of third parties.

The primary vision and future motive of Nepal Express Delivery is to be the one-stop solution for all types of courier-related requirement their clients. They are also looking forward to advance their business with state of art technology, and expand their services to different parts of the Nepal.

“We aim to create an all-round solution for all the logistic requirements of people all over Nepal so they can focus on growing their business and not worry about the delivery. We’re planning to expand our business in other central cities of Nepal such as Birgunj, Butwal, Biratnagar, and other areas.” Ajay says, “Our company is still in its testing phase and its growing with every ups and downs that we face along the way. We’re experimenting different technologies and we’re preparing ourselves for better.”