The X Future

Applying to The X Future's use case:

Helping D2C business provide faster delivery and omnichannel fulfillment

The X Future

The X Future

Cupertino, CA, USA

Use Case Collaborators

DB

Devanshu Bansal

Cofounder

Champion

db@thexfuture.com

Helping D2C business provide faster delivery and omnichannel fulfillment

Published

Last Updated: Fri Jul 01 2022

Industry

Retail, e-commerce
Consumer packaged goods

Function

Logistics and Supply
Packaging
Quality Check

Technologies

AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Robotic Process Automation
Machine learning
Advanced Analytics

Tags

Procedure digitization
Autonomous Quality check
End-to-End Logistics
Inventory Planning
Improved customer satisfaction

Problem Statement

Being a D2C brand comes with some distinct advantages, such as low barriers to entry and more opportunities to engage directly with customers. The world’s shift towards e-commerce and online shopping has led to the uncovering of the huge impact a brand’s ‘faster delivery’ promise has on a consumer’s purchasing decisions. A faster delivery seems to no longer exceed customer expectations; it’s rather expected. Customers are now looking for convenience as well as immediacy when ordering online. This has led to the brand’s logistics being the factor that dictates the end-customers’ purchasing experience. Apart from the delivery speed, an efficient reverse logistics process has also proved to be something that encourages consumers to purchase products with a higher confidence. Corporations are now accepting the fact that, although unfortunate, returns and recalls are an inevitable part of their supply chain. While it was once acceptable and even effective to treat individual returns and other reverse logistics concerns as singular, isolated incidents, that is no longer the case. However, burdened by the costs and various logistical challenges associated with facilitating a quicker delivery and an efficient return management process, such as lack of transparency in inventory to meet orders and track movement of returns, minimal warehousing network, insufficient fleet, etc. D2C brands are in major need of solutions that can expand their logistics networks, minimize waste and cut down on inefficiencies in reverse logistics, shorten their delivery-time by bringing goods closer to their customers, and successfully meet ever-changing market demands.

Description

D2C brands can shorten their time to delivery and enhance their fulfillment process by adopting the following solutions:

  • An order-management portal that integrates with every sales channel of the brand, and enables real-time tracking of each order from the moment they are placed to the minute they land at the customer's doorstep.
  • A return management solution that ensures that they’re neither time-consuming nor costly to the brand.
  • A smart warehousing and inventory placement solution that enables the quickest delivery to every customer; by analyzing the brand’s order density, SKU velocity, seasonality, and market trend by location.
  • An omni-channel fulfillment solution that integrates the online and offline channel of the brand and helps in providing a consistent customer experience, regardless of which channel consumers place their orders from.

    By implementing the above solutions a D2C brand will achieve the following:
     
  • The ability to keep a real-time track of their returns with a clear view of their inventory across all their sales channels; and seamlessly monitor the movement of reverse logistics.
  • A birds eye view of every order on the basis of their status, stage of fulfillment, shipping details, etc.
  • Ability to seamlessly integrate offline and online stores including websites and marketplaces, that can enable use cases such as “Ship from Store”, “In-store pickup”, O2O commerce, etc.
  • Ability to offer quicker deliveries and hyper-local fulfillment by adopting a smart inventory placement approach.
  • The ability to track inventory levels across multiple locations & sales channels, set reminders to proactively replenish inventory, make inventory transfer requests, etc.