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Grow your business with omnichannel presence and automated pickups
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Achieve cost effective, scalable, sustainable, and customer centric deliveries
Orchestrate all your cross-border logistics operations with ease
Improve address accuracy, ensure first-attempt delivery success, reduce costs and boost customer experience
Gain end-to-end shipment visibility, get proactive alerts, and send customers live tracking links
Grow business in a dynamic world and manage operations across First, Middle & Last mile
Delight customers by seamlessly managing store and online orders across own fleet and 3rd party
Reduce freight costs & get end to end visibility across shipments
Giving customers the right products at the right time and place paves the path for a great customer experience and, ultimately, a business’s success. After on-time deliveries, seamless returns is the next thing that delights online shoppers. According to an online survey, 92% of consumers said they would buy again from a store if the return process is easy.
For any business, offering a no-question return policy is not challenging; however, what’s difficult is to manage returns as reverse logistics get costlier with each leg of the journey back to the source. Approximately 30% of the items ordered online are returned; therefore, it is critical for a business or 3PL to implement logistics automation to manage reverse logistics efficiently and cost-effectively.
Before we delve deeper into how automation helps 3PL with reverse logistics management, let’s check out what reverse logistics is and some common reasons for returns.
In the standard logistics and supply chain, goods are moved from the distribution hub to the customer’s location. However, in the case of reverse logistics, products move in the backward direction, i.e., from the end consumer’s location to the distribution hub or the manufacturer. Reverse logistics starts when a customer raises a return request because of these common reasons:
A customer raises a return request when the received product doesn’t meet their expectations. For raising the return request, a customer either contacts the support team or simply selects the return option in the online shopping website or mobile application.
Once the return request is received, the 3PL assigns a driver and vehicle to pick up the product from the customer’s location. After the pick up the product is transported back to the warehouse, fulfillment center, or distribution hub.
The received product is checked for quality and sent for repair, recycling, or simply storage. Once the process completes, refunds are initiated.
After the returns process completes, the inventory is updated.
For efficient management of logistics operations, most businesses outsource them to third-party logistics service providers. Along with delivering goods to customers’ locations, a 3PL also offers reverse logistics management that comes into play when a customer raises a return request.
A third-party logistics provider ensures the pickup and delivery of goods from a customer’s place to the distribution hub or retailer’s warehouse. Like the other processes involved in logistics management, reverse logistics also holds equal importance as it greatly impacts a business’s reputation and customer experience.
Offering returns management comes as a part of 3PL logistics and supply chain management services. 3PLs use tech-powered platforms to ensure seamless and efficient returns management. Here are three main reasons why eCommerce companies, retailers, and other businesses select a 3PL for reverse logistics management are:
A 3PL can set up a dedicated team to perform reverse logistics operations, such as receiving return requests, processing them by manually assigning a vehicle and driver for pickup, tracking the status of the reverse pickup, and more. However, it makes reverse logistics management an expensive and time-intensive process.
A time and cost-efficient way of managing 3PL reverse logistics is to implement logistics automation. Smart logistics management solutions automate returns management and ensure seamless reverse pickups while offering complete visibility on the consignment that is heading back to the distribution hub.
Logistics automation implemented through advanced logistics management solutions automates returns to make reverse logistics management seamless. Let’s understand how:
Logistics automation minimizes the need for hiring human resources to look into existing and processing new return requests. Smart logistics management solutions automatically accept the request and assign a driver or vehicle for the reverse pickup of the product.
To initiate reverse pickups, logistics managers have to create the entire logistics (in reverse direction) journey from scratch. It means they have to assign a rider, select a suitable vehicle, track the status of the pickup, etc. Manually performing all these tasks can eat up a significant amount of time. AI-powered logistics management solutions intelligently club the reverse pickup request with already planned deliveries to save costs and resources.
To understand it better, let’s take an example. A driver is delivering orders in the XYZ location, and the system receives a return request from a location that is within the proximity of XYZ. The logistics management solution will automatically club that request with that order so the same driver can complete the pickup as well.
Advanced logistics management software plan and optimize delivery routes, without any manual intervention, for picking up products from the customer’s location and bringing them back to the distribution hub or fulfillment center.
The logistics management system maintains unified communication among stakeholders by triggering return-related messages via SMS, WhatsApp, or Email. As soon as the driver marks the return pickup task as “complete” or “pickup failed”, the system automatically notifies all stakeholders.
Shipsy’s smart logistics management system enables 3PL companies to manage their delivery as well as reverse logistics operations effortlessly. As compared to standalone solutions such as route optimization software or first mile delivery software, our SaaS-based customizable solution offers end-to-end logistics management that paves the path for business growth and profitability. The solution optimizes all three legs of logistics (first mile, middle mile, and last mile) and also automates post purchase processes, i.e., customer feedback collection and reverse logistics management.
With intelligent order clubbing, the logistics management solution clubs new return requests with already planned deliveries to save time, costs, and resources. The software offers granular level visibility during both the forward and reverse logistics.
Advanced logistics management solution for 3PL reverse logistics management also includes the feature of geofencing to help 3PL providers ensure that drivers are following the right route for the delivery as well as reverse pickup. Shipsy empowers businesses to unlock the following benefits:
To know more about Shipsy’s logistics management solution, visit our solution page or reach out to our experts.
When it comes to optimizing returns and reducing RTO, having a smart last mile delivery software becomes crucial as it ensures highly efficient orchestration of delivery operations and RTO management.
Evolving customer expectations, technological disruptions and the gradual, but definite, shift towards automation and digitization is nudging the 3PL logistics providers towards smart automation.
