Global express and logistics provider TNT is currently rolling out a demand chain management system in Europe that will be introduced in Asia in the third or fourth quarter of the year.
This system is an IT platform which provides customers with various products, including a global payment service designed to overcome customers' reluctance to submit credit card numbers over the Internet.
'In Asia, customers don't want to give their credit card numbers over the Internet or they just don't own credit cards,' TNT Express Worldwide (HK) director of corporate accounts, Hans Olijve, said. Under the modular integrated global payment system, customers just have to pay by way of a bank draft or cheque to a TNT account at a bank.
Within 24 hours of payment confirmation, goods will be shipped to the customer, depending on the destination.
However, if a customer uses on-line processing, it merely takes two to three hours for confirmation.
That information is automatically updated in TNT's central banking system in Holland, following which goods are immediately despatched to customers. Under the global payment system, TNT collects money for purchases on behalf of its customers and acts like a bank before transferring the money to a supplier's bank account. 'The big advantage we offer is we can collect money through bank drafts and cheques, and not many companies can do that,' Mr Olijve said.