“E-commerce returns? No problem”
“With 80% same-day returns across a network of 100 cities, we have set the gold standard in the industry”, says Milind Sharma, VP, Shadowfax
In the 3 months since Nuvo-Ex came on board, the two teams have worked together to build a fine-tuned and widespread reverse pickup service to its clients. “Our teams have worked relentlessly in the past two months, launching a new feature virtually everyday”, noted Mohit Jhunjhunwala, the Director of E-commerce at Shadowfax.
E-commerce logistics 2.0
The team has beaten its own expectations for a successful launch of what they are terming as E-commerce logistics 2.0. The network offers pickup services into 100+ cities, covering 2000+ pincodes. Here’s how it works:
For customers
Let’s say you bought a Levi’s dress from PayTM. However, it doesn’t fit you well and now you want to return it. As soon as you let PayTM know, they can share a weblink with you where you can essentially schedule the pick up whenever you want. You can mark your address as home or office, which allows our riders to always reach you at a good time. No exceptions. You will receive a refund as soon as the order has been picked up and checked for quality by the rider.
Forget all the coordination that you had to do with your roommates or the doorman. They are now a thing of the past. Next time a support person asks you to wait for 3–4 days to receive the refund, you can safely ask them to use Shadowfax ;)
For riders
More than 45,000 riders have joined Shadowfax’s fleet and it’s important for a logistics business to keep its riders happy and engaged. In case of Shadowfax, the transparent, easy to use in-app experience makes it possible. It’s no magic that Shadowfax has the lowest attrition rates in the industry. The E-commerce logistics 2.0 maintains this focus on the rider experience.
The new processes empower riders to manage pickups and check returned products for quality, using only the app. There is absolutely no paper involved which saves the riders a lot of dead-weight. The riders can also fill the appropriate quality form for the kind of product they are picking up, at the customer’s doorstep itself.
The app also tells a rider the preferred time for pickup, as well as, if the pickup is from a home or an office address. This information prevents failed attempts and improves the pickup experience for the rider. After the job is done, the rider receives payouts within the app that ensures transparency. This transparency is useful to incentivise riders on performance and service levels without losing their trust.
For merchants
The same technology that has made the lives of customers and riders easy in ways described above, helps the merchants as well. Merchants can view the shipment with the same transparency as the customers and riders, allowing them to effectively plan for inventory and replacements.
In the pilot projects at Shadowfax Labs, merchants can now define priority logic for pickups. They can now tell Shadowfax if a particular shipment requires more urgent attention than others. This allows them to deliver to customers on time and avoid costly customer support calls in the process. Shadowfax has also introduced separate shipping and handling procedures for heavy shipments.
The team doesn’t consider its job done yet, in case you were wondering. They are working to improve the service turnaround time especially in cases involving air transport.
Milind adds, “In the near future, we are working hard to predict scheduled pickups and be able to pick products up within 90 minutes of a customer’s request. Both our clients and their customers will love a doorstep KYC procedure and instant replacement for the products. We have received some requests for customised packaging as well.”
“We started Shadowfax with a vision to redefine last-mile logistics. The success of E-commerce Logistics 2.0 reinforces our belief and pushes us even harder. We are planning to expand to 300 cities in 2018 and exploring opportunities in return processing facilities, cross border logistics, Warehousing, and wide-scaled air movements”, concluded Praharsh, the Chief of Operations at Shadowfax.
