In its ongoing commitment to helping enterprises seamlessly manage all stages of their last-mile operations, last-mile logistics technology company Locus has announced industry-specific enhancements of its premier, order-to-delivery Dispatch Management Platform for its growing retail, 3PL, and CEP customer bases. These new features serve tounlock greater opportunities across all layers of the fulfilment ecosystem.
Retail and e-commerce brands must have the right technology in place to understand their real-world delivery constraints, fulfil delivery promises at scale, use the full potential of their fleets, and facilitate seamless order-to-delivery experiences that keep customers coming back. Locus has introduced several enhancements that cater to retail and e-commerce, including:
- Powering superior consumer experiences: Retail can exceed consumer expectations by offering flexible and convenient delivery options with Delivery Linked Checkout,whichoptimises deliveries via capacity-led slot bookings and includes multi-speed and time-definite delivery options for same- and next-day shipments. Locus’ Order Management & Route Planning capabilities ensure seamless returns by optimising reverse logistics, cancellations, and reattempts with advanced routing.
- Enabling powerful omnichannel retail experiences: Retailers can provide consumers market-leading omnichannel fulfilment with Locus ShipFlex, which automates the entire carrier workflows for optimal pricing and delivers an end-to-end visibility of order-to-doorstep deliveries across in-house, contracted, and outsourced fleets. Cross-fleet Utilisation facilitates efficient and cost-effective fulfilment by deploying the same fleet across different legs and business. Whereas Dark Store Optimisation allows retailers to centralise dark store, in-store, and FC fulfilment on a single platform.
3PLs and CEPs must also keep up with today’s staggering volume of shipments to build long-term relationships with the e-tailers and manufacturers they support. Locus’ technology enables faster and more efficient last-mile logistics by automating planning processes and enhancing real-time visibility, providing an easier way to manage challenging returns and cancellations, and connecting the dots across their operations and data. New enhancements to enable 3PLs and CEPs to perform at their best include:
- Bringing efficiencies at scale to meet peak demand: Businesses can enable Daily Dynamic Optimisation to optimise their routes and capacity allocation on a daily basis, thereby staying abreast with daily and seasonal fluctuations in capacity and demand. Similarly, Dynamic Zone Planning allows for the creation of daily custom zone clusters to ensure delivery capacity meets demand levels while optimising on-ground resources. Finally, automated parcel sorting and processing allows for the accurate dispatch of orders in minimal time.
- Transporter Management: Allows carriers to bring all transporters onto a single platform to easily assign orders and routes to them at scale, thereby reducing the risk of deadlock if some transporters are out of commission.
Locus has elevated BlueDart-DHL logistics operations to new heights of performance and productivity. Juster Correia, General Manager of Operations, BlueDart-DHL, has added that Locus’ advanced parcel sorting technology, combined with geocoding and route allocation, has transformed BlueDart-DHL’s order processing, resulting in faster order cycle times and 95 per cent route mapping accuracy. The cost savings from reduced overhead resources have been a major boost to the company’s bottom-line. Locus has been an invaluable partner in its journey towards logistics excellence.
On his part, Juan Pablo Diaz Rodriguez, Head of Last Mile of Jüsto, shared that the dramatic acceleration of online commerce channels coupled with dynamic customer preferences has spurred the growth of the Mexican e-grocery sector. Enabling convenience and faster deliveries has become the differentiator for business in this space. Thanks to Locus’s real-world ready dispatch management platform, Jüsto has improved its order visibility, optimised its delivery routes, enhanced its communication with rider personnel, and increased its on-time delivery performance, consequently increasing its customer satisfaction. The firm’s partnership with Locus has also helped it scale the business consistently and build brand loyalty amongst customers. Nishith Rastogi, Founder and CEO of Locus has shared that the company is constantly evolving alongside its customers in ways that give them a competitive edge and the latest updates to its Dispatch Management Platform are in direct response to their everyday needs. Locus solutions have already reduced dispatch planning time by 75 per cent, minimised sorting time by 60 per cent, and slashed 25 per cent in operational costs for both industries, and we still see so much opportunity ahead.