Retail Asia 2018 RA September.October 2018 (Online) | Page 50
LOGISTICS
“Since we launched in 2015, we
have learnt a great deal about the
importance of ensuring logistics
visibility to
maintain efficiency
and obtain a
higher level
of consumer
satisfaction.”
— Christina Lim,
Vice-President,
Marketing, honestbee
(Singapore)
margin industry like grocery, this can
be crippling to the business, Gupta of
TwentyOff shares.
To tackle the high operational
costs for delivery to end-customers,
honestbee (Singapore)’s data and
engineering teams leverage machine
learning algorithms, which help the
company plan its deliveries effectively
to cope with ongoing demand across
its various business verticals. Lim
says: “This technology-led approach is
complemented by a strong Operations
team that responds to honestbee’s
manpower needs accordingly to react
to any immediate surge in demand and
ensure that all orders are delivered on
time.”
HappyFresh Malaysia overcomes
logistical challenges by constantly
optimising its radius and finding the
alternative to provide timely delivery for
its B2C and B2B customers. Hu adds
that the company also ensures that its
fleets are experienced and sufficiently
trained to keep up with orders. On the
field, the homegrown e-commerce firm
prepares its fleets to face the unexpected,
such as ‘out of stock’ situations at
the hypermarket. He says: “We are
constantly working together with our
retailers’ partners to integrate and
minimise this issue. To add, cold chain
delivery is another challenge: our fleet
has to race against time to make sure that
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Retail Asia September/October 2018
the ice cream, butter and other frozen
items won’t melt on their way.”
The absence of a reliable yet
affordable cold chain is another similar
challenge for TwentyOff, Gupta shares.
It is understandably vital to maintain
consistency when delivering ready-to-
consume products.
Beckitt of BottlesXO shares:
“Ensuring consumables are at the correct
temperature and in the right packaging
for every order requires a huge amount
of staff training and process monitoring.
Enabling internal visibility throughout
your logistics process and commitment
to your values from the wider team are
crucial to providing intended levels of
customer experience.”
Likewise, to ensure the freshness and
quality of the products and ingredients,
honestbee (Singapore) constantly
provides training for its “Shopper Bees”
so that they can handpick the freshest
produce as and when its customers place
their orders for the items.
Beckitt continues: “In Asia, there
is definitely a lack of awareness of how
grocery products need to be transported
and stored during various steps of the
supply chain. You need to be sure your
in-house logistics and any third-party
logistics (3PL) partners have the correct
processes and safety checks in place to
ensure your products are arriving in the
best possible condition.”
Improving logistics visibility, especially
in the last mile, can also help overcome
some challenges as GPS-based driver
tracking proved to be a huge step forward
in providing visibility to consumers.
However, more can be done to improve
and integrate more intelligent estimated
delivery times by accounting traffic,
weather, average speed of the individual
driver and other factors which can give
customers better idea of the exact moment
they will receive their goods. “Digitally-
enabled temperature monitoring during
the delivery for ready-to-consume food
and beverages can also offer added value
to consumers and increase the visibility,”
Beckitt adds.
To aid its riders to move faster and
safely, no matter what the weather is,
HappyFresh Malaysia’s riders’ bags are
designed to be waterproof, light and able
to roll like a suitcase. “For the customers,
we update them through our ‘My Order
Status’ page so they will be able to
know what's their shopping progress.
We are also working towards having an
easier communication channel between
shoppers/riders and our customers,” Hu
says.
Lim shares three pointers that
honestbee (Singapore) has been
continuously leveraging to better
improve the way it delivers its services.
Firstly, companies should harness data
meaningfully to help optimise manpower
and time resources, as this can help to
enable more efficient pick-ups and prompt
deliveries. Secondly, develop a system that
allows clear and quick communication
between fleet managers and drivers to
identify any unexpected problems or issues
honestbee provides on-demand grocery
delivery service in 16 cities across eight
countries in Asia. It has also extended its
business to food and laundry delivery.