What is Origin?
Origin refers to the starting point in the delivery life cycle. This term indicates the seller’s address, country, and all in-between locations where the intermediate handlers received a product. Highlighting the immediate origin allows intermediate handlers to confirm the product and further streamline the delivery process while delegating its responsibilities to the next stakeholder.
Significance of Origin in E-commerce Shipping and Delivery
Origin and several other information are used to verify the product in various stages of a shipping lifecycle. Therefore, such information decreases the turnaround time for verification from a stakeholder’s end.
- Verification and product identity: Product identification plays a crucial role in changing hands. Based on information such as origin, the product is further processed, and the corresponding data is updated, allowing a seller to track it.
- Identifying mishandling: When a product is handed over, its origin in an intermediate cycle is noted. Therefore, when a product incurs damage during transit, its immediate source allows a stakeholder to identify the entities responsible for the mentioned outcome.
Prerequisites of Origin and How It Works
Origin points must be updated by the seller and every entity responsible for handling and moving the product forward in the shipping life cycle.
- Seller’s address: The product is received from the seller, with their address being used as an origin point.
- Updation: As the product moves through the shipping lifecycle, the handling parties must update their information as intermediate origin points before handing it over to the following entity.
Use Case with Origin
A buyer from Sydney ordered a product from Melbourne. The shipping company broke down the delivery into three phases, during which the Melbourne warehouse stored it, followed by another storage unit in Sydney. As the product moved to the warehouse in Melbourne, the seller’s address was referred to as the origin point. Subsequently, when the storage unit received the product in Sydney, the previous warehouse was touted as the origin point.