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Case study

Marsh and Innoship: Working together to help e-commerce retailers be disruptive

In the world of technology-driven start-ups, the ability to meet demand requires agile thinking and adaptability or as Daniel Nicolae, CEO of Innoship says, “To be able to operate just in time, you need to plan in advance”.

02/03/2023

In the world of technology-driven start-ups, the ability to meet demand requires agile thinking and adaptability or as Daniel Nicolae, CEO of Innoship says, “To be able to operate just in time, you need to plan in advance”.

Daniel and his Innoship co-founders, Andrei Paul, Robert Tănase, and Dan Ungureanu, were all experienced operators in the retail supply chain industry before they established the company in 2019. These industry veterans had seen an opportunity in the market and created a technology-driven service company to fill that void.

The software as a service (SaaS) firm offers retailers the opportunity to provide simple yet powerful delivery experiences and reduce their shipping costs by up to 25%.

For each retailer client, Innoship’s delivery management solutions select the most appropriate parcel carrier from among all contracted carriers. 

This selection is based on:

  • Order characteristics, such as weight and dimensional properties
  • Delivery rules, such as delivery time and delivery zone
  • Carrier performance
  • Cost differentials of various carrier offerings in each region

Combined with solutions for dynamic delivery options at checkout, user-friendly branded tracking, and simple returns and exchanges, end customers get more choice, convenience, and confidence in what they are buying and when they will receive it.

This easy-to-use solution helped Innoship gain a strong foothold in the Romanian market and it quickly forged partnerships with some of the biggest players in the retail space.

Daniel knew from his previous role with one of Europe’s largest telecoms operators that he worked well with Marsh and felt the culture of the company fit that of Innoship. He approached Marsh about helping to create an insurance programme to add value to its services and protect its clients during parcel delivery ꟷ an area fraught with risk.

Marsh was able to offer Innoship a unique solution in the region. Together with a carefully chosen insurance partner, Marsh created an innovative and bespoke coverage that included goods transported by the carriers for the retailers to the final clients for the whole period they are in transit. Normally this type of insurance is offered by the couriers, however the Innoship solution covers more risks, such as: accidental damage during transport, including in the cargo warehouse; mysterious disappearance; unexplained loss; and theft. Even more impressive is that it is less expensive than the insurance offered by the couriers.

For Innoship, Marsh didn’t just offer a route to the most appropriate insurance coverage, but helped create a competitive advantage, Daniel said, “Marsh is working for us and needs to provide to us valuable insights about the design of the insurance product, how the product should work, and the way the product should be presented to our customers. As long you have a couple of large customers or high volumes of traffic around your customers, you add value with different types of insurance products. Those benefits and different type of insurance products can be disruptive on the market, creating new opportunities.” 

The success Innoship enjoyed, first in its native Romania and later in neighbouring Poland and Czechia, saw it become one of the most recognised and trusted operators in logistics in the region. Innoship and Alsendo, a technology shipping solutions business in Central Eastern Europe, entered a strategic partnership to develop first-class e-commerce solutions for retailers in Central and Eastern Europe. By combining the strengths of both companies, this partnership will accelerate the transition of Alsendo from a reselling shipping business to a technology-driven provider of delivery solutions. 

“In Central Eastern Europe, it's a pretty fragmented market with different languages, different currencies, and different business models. Marsh operates within a country as strong as any local player, offering expertise on national laws and regulations, but then has this international network that can offer you those same insights in other countries. We rely on their specialists in each country to guide us and it gives us the confidence to expand into other markets we are unfamiliar with,” Daniel explained.

As Innoship continues its growth into new markets and partners with a bigger network of organisations, Marsh teams will be there to support the company and ensure it has the coverage needed. 

Innoship continues to innovate and offer new value-added services, and where necessary Marsh will be able to advise the company on the risks it faces and what can be done to mitigate those risks.

Marsh knows that the job doesn’t finish at placement. We proactively look for ways to constantly improve the solutions we offer and find new ways to help organisations achieve their commercial and risk management goals.