The value of the global e-commerce logistics market was $372.80 billion in 2023. Between 2024 and 2032, it is expected to increase from $441.55 billion to $1.9 trillion, up by more than 20% a year over the forecast period. Against this backdrop of cutthroat competition, it’s evident that many e-commerce logistics companies need to optimize their delivery routes. Two feasible ways of doing this involve mapping customer locations and providing traffic updates in real time.

You will need a service that offers customer support and is updated regularly if you’re building an interactive map for a business or an organization. Free services rarely provide this level of support, but services with a free trial could be a feasible solution. You can explore the many mapping tools platforms have to offer before making a commitment.

Step-by-step guide

You start by entering or uploading your data. You can upload it directly from an Excel spreadsheet or Google and copy and paste it into your mapping software of choice or enter it manually. The map can be viewed under “Create Map” or a similar tab. The location data is then plotted on an interactive map. Use any available customization settings to tweak map markers and base maps.

You can use a marker grouping to color code your markers by data type. There are tools to create heat maps, drive time maps, territories, and routes, and view your data by geographic boundaries.

There is more to it. When you share or embed the map, it becomes more than an image frozen in time. Any changes made within your interactive maps are reflected everywhere. Interactive maps evolve in parallel to user insight, making sure that viewers always see current information.

What can maps help with?

The route optimization software market is projected to grow by 14.4% a year from 2024 to 2030. According to a 2023 study by the Transportation Research Board, companies can reduce delivery times by 20-30% on average by incorporating real-time traffic data.

Drivers usually need to complete a certain route. Real-time kinematic technology and route maps can maximize route efficiency.

What types of maps are there?

You can create heat maps, choropleth maps, and flow maps. Heat maps show sales hotspots worldwide. You can see the number of orders per country. More specifically, heat maps help visualize data using color like bar graphs use width and height. The color is warmer when there is a place with high population density (or any other metric). It shows that many e-commerce company customers could be there. Choropleth maps are another example of data visualized on a map. On these maps, some areas are lighter or darker in relation to the measurement of a given statistic variable displayed there. These maps offer an easy way to show how measurements vary across a geographic area.

The percentage of products sold per region can be an example of this. The color can be dark blue when a certain region has a higher ratio of products sold versus products in stock. It can be light blue if the sales are lower. If there are no sales in that region, the color could be white.

Flow maps are very useful tools for logistics companies. They show how shipped goods are moving to clients or distributors.

Recap