Five years ago, five young and vibrant minds thought to revamp how logistics are executed and served to customers in India. Having found many uneven spots on the surface that is logistics, the Team iThink Logistics decided to smooth them over by developing their own home-grown AI-driven aggregator model. Sarada Vishnubhatla catches Zaiba Sarang, Co-Founder, iThink Logistics to find out about the numerous challenges that she and her co-founders have set out to overcome on behalf of their customers.
If you are an e-commerce company, or a courier giant, be sure to say ‘iThink Logistics’! Especially, if you want the tiny knots of logistical challenges to be straightened out to get the weave of your logistics shine with excellence.
As a bootstrapped company, iThink Logistics is an AI-based multi-carrier platform that is designed to help sellers to reduce logistical inefficiencies including the nightmare of the returning of the packages. iThink Logistics works on the thought process that the e-commerce sellers get more successful deliveries under their belt by using iThink’s aggregation model.
Zaiba Sarang, Co-Founder shares: “Using our recommendation engine, we help the seller to select or offer the best partner using different criteria. We offer simple integration to the seller’s marketplace through automated syncing. Our automated order fulfillment is possible by using the services of multiple courier partners through a single platform. iThink Logistics opts for a seamless and hassle-free shipping procedure. We align the demand and supply based on different parameters like cost, efficiency, and speed with which deliveries happen among others.”
iThink serves about 27,000 pin codes across the country.
NDR – Ensuring Successful Deliveries
iThink Logistics’ high success rate with customers is courtesy their AI-based NDR or Non-Delivery Report technology.
She explains: “The NDR technology is patented by us and it was introduced by us in the logistics domain. When it comes to logistics companies, especially the e-commerce ones, there are a maximum of three attempts made to push the shipment delivery. If the first two attempts fail, the NDR comes into play which facilitates immediate action on the shipments automatically, without any manual intervention.”
The process may sound simple yet the backend function is complicated since it involves multiple logistics partners, their own unique functional terminology and the expected solution involves innumerable parameters and navigating through them to make the ‘right’ delivery happen.
Zaiba adds: “The NDR technology allows for a completely transparent process which is appreciated by the seller. Every action taken on each AWB can be tracked for all the details and movements. Another provision we facilitate is that of rescheduling the delivery on the request of the customer through manual communication. And this works completely differently as against the cancellation of an order by the customer.”
Boosting Excellence in Logistics
One of the many USPs that sets iThink apart is that the dashboard developed is intuitive and user-friendly. Their customers get the data and the report of the number of shipments that were delivered successfully and also the ones which are held in abeyance. iThink offers an additional service to allow the buyer to give feedback on the product. The company provides deep analysis of the customer’s data to know, say, the highest selling product or the one facing high RTO or Return to Origin.
Typically, there are two use cases that are visible in logistics – one where the buyer does not want to accept the package or is unable to and two is where the recipient has accepted but wants to return it. Currently, iThink facilitates the solution from the seller side and is yet to offer such an option to the end customer. It means that the seller can generate a reverse pick-up on iThink platform only when the customer reaches out.
With a high rate of customer retention, especially in the enterprise segment, iThink is working hard to be consistent in offering quality service in a continuous activity like shipping.
Zaiba emphasizes that: “We work with our customer’s own logistics team as one of their own rather than as a partner. It means that getting a job done or smoothening a kink out becomes as much our responsibility as the customer’s. And, that is exactly what we offer – a tightly looped service that is devoid of stress.”
To ensure such ‘almost flawless’ service, iThink deputes a dedicated account manager with each customer to undertake monthly review calls with them. And that is how the team garners first-hand knowledge of the challenges that the customers continue to face and figure out how best they can be overcome using technology.
She says further: “Executing the NDR is but one challenge. Another is weight discrepancy and this is one area where different courier companies charge differently. In such a scenario, we ensure to take a visual proof of the package and showcase the weight and then indicate to the courier company to charge accordingly. That way, we eliminate weight and cost discrepancies to a large extent.”
iThink Logistics is all set to give a leg up to the fast-emerging e-commerce industry in India.
She agrees: “The e-commerce brands today are aggressively looking for a reliable solution like ours. Today, the companies are scaling their business within no time which requires automation in every aspect of their platform. The previously unstructured logistics market is becoming more organized but there are still some aspects of it which need to be improved upon. The best part is that nowadays the sellers are actively focusing on providing greater customer experience. Good and robust technology platform alone can handle most of these aspects.”
Rise in Omni-Channel Distribution
As per McKinsey & Co, omni-channel distribution is on the rise. This works on a single inventory-management system that depends on both conventional shops and e-commerce channels. The firm’s projections indicate a seven per cent growth in omni-channel distribution going from US $ 600 billion in 2019 to US $ 840 billion by 2025.
Zaiba feels: “It is natural to grow towards omni-channel distribution because e-commerce brands want to get even closer to their customers.”
This trend is expected to ‘trigger a demand in the contract-logistics while competing with in-house logistics of e-commerce companies’!
Focus Areas of Growth
iThink is largely focusing on the last mile logistics servicing both small and large sellers. The idea is to enhance customer experience by optimizing their solutions and by also offering help post-shipping to those who cannot create a solution on their own. The advantage with iThink is that small or medium companies can quickly and easily scale their operations using this platform.
She says: “We are now making forays into international shipping also. And we are considering this as another core area of business for us. We have already begun our operations in the US and will be extending our services to others such as the UK, Australia, and Canada among others. We have entered into a JV with an international aggregator who has strong last mile logistics operations to execute the deliveries through their postal network.”
iThink Logistics has developed its own technology and the R&D teams and that is why many big names in the e-commerce and logistics domains are associating with the company.
If iThink Logistics began with the dream of becoming their customers’ personalized logistics aggregator team, today the company has not only achieved this but has gone a step beyond.
Zaiba replies: “Now that we are starting our international operations, we wish to become preferred logistics partners to the e-commerce companies there. Our endeavour is to ease their pain points on a daily basis by giving them multiple options to work through challenges.”
At this juncture, all that iThink needs to do is to scale and expand their operations, increase their efficiency, and find the right product fit.
Creating a sustainable ecosystem for all the stakeholders involved in this domain is no longer a lofty idea for iThink Logistics because it is already weaving it.
If you ask what about getting the nuances of logistics domain right, iThink Logistics would reply they have it down pat!