AMI – the world’s largest trade-only airfreight and express wholesaler – is set to revolutionise express imports to South Africa, with the launch of an all-inclusive online service.
Called click2ship Express Imports, the new service is the imports counterpart of click2ship Express Exports, launched in South Africa in 2014. Click2ship Express Imports provides online quotes and bookings for imports from any location in the world. Prices include collection at origin, Customs export entries, freight, Customs clearance on arrival, and local delivery from airport to agent or consignee.
The new service is aimed both at freight agents at point of origin, and those in South Africa. Its goal is to simplify and speed up the importing process, as well as providing agents with instant quotes that will help them to secure business by offering faster responses to customer enquiries.
Says AMI’s VP Africa, Milton French: “Imports currently accounts for some 20% of AMI’s turnover in South Africa, so the potential to grow imports business is considerable. click2ship Express Imports is simple to use, provides attractive rates based on quality operators, and saves agents having to conduct time-consuming research into multiple suppliers in order to construct a quote. We believe this represents an appealing package.”
French expects click2ship Express Imports to echo the success of its exports counterpart, which now handles around 10% of AMI’s exports business. He continues: “click2ship Express Exports was a revolutionary concept for South Africa, and the market took a while to understand and accept it. But, now that agents recognise the savings in time and cost which it provides, the take-up is improving all the time. We expect a similar experience with the new Imports version, and have great optimism for its longer-term prospects.”
The appearance and funcionality of the click2ship Express Imports portal is deliberately based closely on the Exports site, so that existing export customers will find it familiar and easy to use. click2ship Express Imports provides global coverage, and is available for all commodities except hazardous cargo.
An ever-increasing proportion of AMI’s global business is now conducted online, and the company makes significant ongoing investments to support its customers with a growing range of innovative web-based products. click2ship Express Imports was recently launched in AMI’s UK operation, and has also been active in the USA (trading as Quick2Ship) for some time.
