Import as if delivered by Coupang...? The 'real' digital transformation of logistics

The import and export logistics process is complicated because many transportation stakeholders such as shipping/airlines, customs brokers, inland carriers, and couriers are involved.

If you just look at the shipping process, an import and export company has to go to the website of a shipping company, check the schedule, find the right schedule for delivery, and then get a freight quote, but it takes a lot of time and resources to get quotes from multiple companies and compare them with each other.

It is also very difficult for individuals to communicate with various stakeholders separately, so they need a forwarding company that can arrange all the processes of import and export logistics.

In line with the recent digital transformation trend, the wind of digitalization is also blowing in the shipping industry, which did not seem to change easily. In recent years, API has emerged as an important keyword in the domestic forwarding industry. I met with a representative of a domestic digital forwarding company and asked him about the digital transformation situation in the forwarding industry.

"In the past, a standard network called EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) was used for import and export logistics. It is an Internet network that exchanges information between companies, and it is a network created because of trade. When a company exchanged data with another company, it linked the program through a medium called EDI, and a lot of resources were wasted, such as a lot of developers being put in each time. It's also a closed approach with a lot of limitations when it comes to scalability. That's why global shipping companies have already shifted a lot from EDI to API (Application Programming Interface)."

API is an abbreviation for Application Programming Interface, which simply allows one program to easily access another. It is a development method that does not develop a completely new program from scratch, but links a service that is already used in an existing program.

It is widely used as a standard in most industries because it can easily create a high-level service, but this transition has not been done well in the domestic shipping industry.

“In order to meet the global trend, the domestic industry is also shifting from EDI to API. Recently, a shipping company called Nam Sung Hae Un has linked APIs with our digital forwarding service, and through this, we could immediately check its schedule, freight rate, and quotation. In addition, we are planning to work with other well-known domestic and foreign shipping companies."