Trend vision DSV: ‘Collaboration – including with competitors – is key to future success’

Consumer buying behaviour is changing and the market is restless. Why exactly? Which challenges does this pose for businesses? And where should we look to find solutions? Meinderdjan Botman, CCO of DSV Solutions, provides his vision on the e-commerce world.

There is so much going on in the world of e-commerce – from the ageing population and urbanization, to the demand for sustainability, the rise of e-commerce in B2B, new technological advancements and disruption in the international freight transport market. According to Botman, all this presents businesses with countless challenges.

Collaboration

Responsiveness is key in continuing to address the ever-changing customer needs. Companies tend to find that difficult, according to Botman: “on the one hand you want to do new things quickly, but on the other you also have to take data security and the robustness of new solutions into account. They have to fit within your infrastructure which has to be much better protected than before against things like cybercrime, for example.”
Botman is also noticing that today’s fast pace of technological advancement means that companies can no longer survive on their own. “Collaboration is already important, but it’s getting more important all the time. It’s not just a matter of collaborating with customers, but also and above all with suppliers and partners – forming partnerships in order to offer a better proposition, supply better data and provide more versatile technology together. Forecasts are still unreliable, so you need more information from one another.”

Customers should also be less averse to working with competitors, he says: “Setting up supplier consolidation between several companies (brand owners) can enable you to create a much bigger goods flow, e.g. from Asia to Europe. Collaboration – including with competitors – is the key to future success.”