We are with Guido, founder of Del Mundo Courier who is going to tell us how he built his company from scratch, positioning it as the most successful Argentine Start Up in the logistics and foreign trade area in just 4 years.
Guy, how are you? Thank you for dedicating these minutes to tell us about your experience in the creation of Del Mundo Courier. What is it and how was the company born?
No, a pleasure. Thank you for taking an interest in our company.
I tell you, Del Mundo Courier is a logistics company that was born four years ago. We started making shipments to Venezuela, due to the need of many Venezuelans to send products and parcels to their family and friends who stayed in their country. At that time “Del Mundo” was me alone in an office with a computer receiving Venezuelans and making shipments there. With the course of time, we began to expand to the whole world. We started working with FeDex, initially as wholesalers for them to import and export to and from the world. We have been growing a lot year after year despite the fact that the first year we had to stop operating with Venezuela, because beyond the fact that it was not profitable and we did it to serve the entire community that helped us grow and start the business, It was a very complicated destination, with many obstacles and restrictions that meant that the user experience did not end up being satisfactory due to reasons beyond our control. That is why after the first year I focused and specialized in shipping all over the world learning the regulations of each one of the countries. Little by little I began to hire people in the company and after 4 years, we are already 15 people working. With areas of management, billing, sales, logistics. We did this in a very short time.
Spectacular growth…
Yes, the growth was exponential in volume transported, both in shipments abroad and in imports. The pandemic greatly empowered us to take a leap in quality and our virtue was to consolidate what we had achieved in the pandemic and to be able to continue on this path of growth and thus be able to strengthen our brand. To give you an idea, in the pandemic we grew by 500%. The following year another 100%. Afterwards, we already consolidated in an annual growth of between 30% and 50% measured in the variable that occurs to you (kilos transported, billing in real terms, etc.)
I add something else, so that you take dimension of what has been achieved. We have become the most important resellers of Fedex in the country. And we are market leaders in shipping abroad.
What were the bases of the success of your business and its rapid growth?
Clearly, growth was and is linked to service, to a very personal job that we did and that we have with clients, which is to respond quickly to any inconvenience that may arise when sending or requesting information. Apart from the shipment being insured, we give a quick response, a quick return that is a great differential in our market. In the event of any inconvenience (which fortunately rarely happens) the response time is 5 to 10 minutes when our competitors are between 30 minutes and an hour. We have a query message flow of more than 500 daily messages. We are close to our clients in which we give a very personalized service and we are constantly on top of them. Beyond having super competitive rates, what I think we have is a very great relationship with the client and a very fast response time. And that has meant that over the years we have gained many clients, we have kept them and also, many clients from the competition have come with us. We have a service rating from Google reviews of 4.8 out of 5 possible, and we’re proud of that.
I understand that there is a lot of investment in human capital, but also a lot in technology, right?
It’s actually three legs. Technology and human capital go hand in hand and it is what allows us to provide an outstanding service, to be very close to clients and to be able to follow up to give accurate and personalized answers regarding the queries they make to us. The other is the investment in marketing, so that they know us and try us. Although the flow of new clients that we have by recommendation and “word of mouth” is very large, we invest a lot in marketing to be able to sustain this exponential growth that I told you about, and when they try us, they stay with us for everything. that I explained to you before. Today you have to have a presence not only in a traditional way, but in the new platforms and we invest in that. Being such a young company, only 4 years old, we have achieved a lot and the idea is to continue on this path.
What is your current role in the company?
I am a person who is very present in the company, I am there every day, although I have a great capacity to delegate. I like to work as a team, I delegate practically 90% of the company’s functions. But when there are extremely important issues, I am present as the owner, even to call clients in case of any inconvenience. I am to call personally in case you have not been satisfied with the service or that the experience as a client has not been as expected. Offer a solution so that the client ends up satisfied because his problem was solved directly and quickly. We know that it is impossible to have all clients 100% satisfied, but we try to ensure that everyone is satisfied with everything we provide, and if at first it was not as expected, we give ourselves the opportunity to find a way to reverse that first sensation. As a result of this policy, out of 800 ratings we have an average of 4.8, unprecedented in our industry. In short, there is a large human group to which I can delegate calmly and the owner is present to resolve any case that exceeds them.
Let’s move on to the situation. How do trade restrictions to import affect your business?
The main thing in this regard is that anyone who wants to bring something from abroad needs an expert to advise them, so we have become experts in foreign trade, and taxes, informing what can be brought in and what is not, what is the limit by item, by shipment and by CUIT and what taxes must be paid. That way the customer has predictability and no surprises. In this sense, in Argentina there are new measures every day, new taxes, restrictions and limits, so although this makes the activity a little more complex, we have the know-how in these areas to advise clients and therefore, we add value to our service. For that, in addition to being experts, we have to adapt our systems quickly and respond to those changes. We are a logistics and foreign trade consulting company. In any case, today the largest volume is taken by the shipment of merchandise abroad and that is where, in addition to everything I told you, our company becomes a partner of all entrepreneurs and SMEs that want to open up to international markets and not to stay with selling only in Argentina and in that sense, we develop many tools tailored to each client, to help them in this process.
In other words, any SME or entrepreneur who publishes their product on Instagram or wherever, if they receive a query from abroad, no longer has to say no, whatever the destination. They write them a message, they quote the shipping, and that entrepreneur automatically expanded their market. You end up being a fundamental link in the process of internationalization of companies.
Exactly, you described it perfectly. Today any SME or small business that has gotten used to selling locally, or selling to the whole country with Mercado Libre, for example, can expand its market. Today, having an Instagram or a web page, you have the possibility of selling to everyone, and it is much easier than it was before or what people believe and perceive. Many people believe that sending something abroad is very difficult, and it is extremely simple, because we advise the client with each of the destinations, each of the cities, which country has restrictions, which country does not, what tax is paid in each one of the countries when receiving the merchandise, that is, we are a strategic partner to promote SMEs and companies in Argentina to sell to the whole world.
I give you the last Guido, what would be the next step for #DelMundoCourier?
Look, one step that I can tell you that we are beginning to take now and that we are going to take with much more force is the specialization in exporting wines to the whole world and especially to the United States, since the company managed to have the distribution and legal import of wines in the United States, for which we are beginning to work with wineries and distributors to be able to export Argentine wines by air in 24, 48 hours to the United States. This is just one example. In addition to serving people, we want to be a strategic partner in logistics and foreign trade for all companies that dream of growing without a roof and without borders. Regional producers, Start ups, small entrepreneurs. In the case of wines, we have all the authorizations and approvals to take care of the entire export process, giving the client a solution that includes the entire circuit.
Thank you very much Guido for telling us all about the company. Surprised at all they have achieved in such a short time. See you next.
www.delmundocourier.com
ig: @delmundocourier
0810-362-0444
Whatsapp: + 54 9 11 2250 2029
by CEDOC