Who is Consignor?
A consignor is a person or entity responsible for initiating the packaging and delivery of a product. Primarily, sellers are tagged as consignors, and in most cases, they are the initiators. However, merchants, e-commerce brands, and mediators in end-to-end shipping cycles are also referred to as consignors based on the mentioned deliverable.
Significance of Consignor in an E-commerce Shipping and Delivery
A consignor plays a vital role in initiating and managing transparency throughout the shipping cycle. These benefits have been further elaborated below.
- Demand creation: A consignor is a primary entity behind demand creation through successful order fulfillment. Without them, the demand or the requirement for sending a product to a determined location is nullified.
- End-to-end cycle management: Nowadays, shipping companies can break down shipping cycles into several end-to-end delivery processes. Mediators within such cycles also act as consignors when initiating the next set of the delivery cycle once the previous one ends. It is done to ensure the products have been delivered unharmed, thus providing better management and oversight.
Prerequisites of Consignor and How It Works
Apart from the seller initiating a shipping request, a shipping company must place a mediator between every end-to-end shipping cycle. The following steps underline how the work of a consignor is accomplished.
- Initiation and disbursal: The main consignor or the seller initiates and hands the product to a shipping company.
- End-to-end checking: Once an intermediate shipping cycle ends, a mediator is required to check the products received. After finishing the mentioned task, the intermediate consignor initiates the next delivery phase.
Use Case With Consignor
Some use cases with a consignor in different phases of a shipping lifecycle have been listed below.
- A seller initiates the delivery of 200 products to a particular country.
- A warehouse manager receives 130 products from a shipment, verifies them per the shipping manifest, and initiates the last-mile delivery.