Last Mile Logistics Software in Malaysia: Trends and Key Capabilities to Look Out for

There are numerous last mile logistics software in Malaysia. But can all of them deliver on your unique business needs? It’s not an easy question to answer. In fact, to answer this question, we need to look at factors driving the need for intelligent last mile delivery software in Malaysia.

Three Key Drivers of Last Mile Delivery Software in Malaysia

The need for retailers to provide agile last mile delivery services, skyrocketing demand for same-day deliveries and the growing frequency of indulgence buying are three critical factors driving the need for last mile logistics software in Malaysia. Let’s quickly have a look at each of these. 

1. Growing Need for Retailers To Provide Last Mile Services

COVID accelerated the need for retailers to provide customers with doorstep deliveries. A report by Bain & Company highlighted that since COVID, approximately 70 million more people shopped online in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

This development introduces the need to provide exceptional delivery experience as now it’s not just the product quality and price that will determine customer loyalty. Quality of logistics service is equally essential to ensure repeat customers. Providing end-customers with the ability to track delivery progress on a map in real-time, sending delivery updates over SMS and WhatsApp, and ensuring accurate ETAs, among others, become critical.

While providing these capabilities is vital with regard to ensuring delightful delivery experiences, retailers need to optimize last mile costs to stay profitable. Hence using advanced route planning and optimization tools, intelligent 3PL management dashboards, efficient order management tools and digitizing customer and rider experiences will be equally important.

2. Ensuring Same and Next Day Deliveries

This trend has become a way of life in mature eCommerce markets like the US. But even in Southeast Asian markets like Malaysia, the trend is picking up fast, and not being able to deliver fast will result in a competitive disadvantage. The same Bain & Company report highlighted that 32% of Southeast Asia consumers quickly switch eCommerce brands to receive orders on time, the same day and the next day. Delivering orders on the same day definitely boosts customer loyalty, but it’s resource and cost-intensive.

Businesses need to leverage advanced logistics management technologies to ensure better resource utilization, plan multi-stop pickup and delivery routes, improve vehicle capacity utilization and first-attempt delivery success, ensure address accuracy and more.

3. Quick Commerce Industry will Intensify Last Mile Competition

According to Ken Research, Malaysia’s Quick Commerce Market is expected to deliver 1.3 million orders within 30 mins by 2027. Malaysians are seeking convenience and not just value, and at the same time, the digitally native generation in the country are getting more inclined towards indulgence purchase. These two factors have been the critical drivers of Malaysia’s growing quick commerce industry. With quick commerce, we are talking about orders being delivered on demand in less than an hour most of the time. This trend will influence businesses to automate core pickup and delivery processes. They will focus on drastically increasing rider and route productivity to optimize costs. Cost-efficiently and quickly leveraging the gig economy to scale on demand deliveries during peak business hours will gather significant momentum too.

Last Mile Logistics Software in Malaysia: Five Key Capabilities to Look for

1. Route Planning and Optimization

To reduce last mile delivery costs in Malaysia, businesses will need to leverage intelligent route planning and optimization tools. Such tools can automatically chalk out efficient last mile delivery routes by considering constraints around order and vehicle type. Regarding orders, an advanced routing solution will consider factors like weight, volume and promised SLAs. In the case of vehicles, it will consider factors like make, capacity, distance and delivery time slots while generating routes. Once routes are created, such tools automatically and instantly allocate the same to drivers via a rider application.

Shipsy’s route planning and optimization solution is empowering businesses to ensure:

• 31% Increase in vehicle capacity utilization
• 25% More deliveries per vehicle
• Up to 13% enhancement in delivery schedule adherence
• 12% Reduction in total transportation cost 

2. Multiple 3PL Management

To manage skyrocketing eCommerce order volumes, retailers will need to build a robust multi-carrier ecosystem. Deploying an advanced 3PL allocation engine will empower businesses in Malaysia to prioritize logistics partners based on delivery SLAs and their logistical strengths in specific geographies, areas and pin codes. The prioritization too can be done based on service type, past performance, cost structures, manufacturer’s preference turnaround times and more.

Such an allocation engine also helps better manage ”non-delivery reasons” (NDR) by validating unsuccessful deliveries directly with customers. The engine helps orchestrate deliveries across multiple 3PLs and enables retailers to provide various delivery options like same-day delivery, next-day delivery, slotted delivery and more.

Shipsy’s multiple 3PL management solution is helping retailers:

• Reduce last-mile delivery costs by 12%
• Increase deliveries per rider by 12%
• Increase in order pickup within 24 hrs 30% 
• Deliver on 30 mins SLA promise
• Increase in customer experience by 64%
• Boost on-time deliveries by 24%

3. Digital Customer and Driver Experience

To win the hearts of customers, businesses in Malaysia need to master the art of providing delightful digital experiences. To achieve this, they will need to digitize last-time interaction and engagement with customers using advanced logistics management tools. These tools can drastically improve address accuracy to ensure deliveries are completed in one go. Seamlessly communicating delivery time slots and ETAs ensures customers are fully prepared to receive their order at the doorstep–saving both the customer’s and delivery executive’s time.

Such tools enable customers to track their orders in real-time on a map and get live updates on delivery progress over WhatsApp, SMS and email once orders are dispatched. Tools like these make deliveries more flexible for customers by ensuring they can select their own time slots, change the delivery address and opt for the most convenient payment options.

Keeping drivers engaged and happy is critical too. Retail and eCommerce businesses will need to digitize driver onboarding, documentation verification and performance management by leveraging intuitive rider applications. Adding a gamification layer to a rider app helps delivery managers ensure fair payments and recognize good work with medals and incentives.

Shipsy’s digital customer experience capabilities are helping businesses to:

• Reduce fake delivery attempts by 23%
• Increase delivery success rate by 8%
• Reduce call center resources needed to ascertain location reduced by 85% 
• Increase delivery success rate by 12% to reduce ND and RTO costs 

4. Geocoding Engine

Retailers and logistics service providers can easily convert text-based and fuzzy addresses into latitude and longitude-based exact locations using an advanced geocoding engine. Address accuracy is ensured by matching the location with Geographic Information System Mapping (GIS) data. Shipsy’s geocoding engine is helping delivery stakeholders reduce order allocation time by up to 15%.

5. Order Management and Dispatch

To ensure agile last mile delivery operations, businesses must have complete control and visibility of every order. Last mile logistics software in Malaysia with robust order management and dispatch capabilities enables logistics stakeholders to know the city and hub-level order details, check the status of individual orders and sort them accordingly.

It ensures the efficient allocation of orders based on a rider’s exact location and once allocated, it helps delivery managers track orders in real-time. Using these capabilities, logistics stakeholders can quickly reallocate orders, inform customers about delays, quickly arrest route deviations and access historical information about individual orders.

Shipsy’s order management and dispatch capabilities are empowering businesses to:

• Reduce query resolution time by 13%
• Reduce the rate of delivery partner deviance by 10%
• Gain greater visibility across hub-level delivery operation

While these are just six must-have last-mile delivery software capabilities Malaysian businesses must focus on, we will keep sharing many more. In case you would like to find out how Shipsy is helping companies in Southeast Asia achieve the above efficiencies, book a customized demo here.