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.