Interaction - Nishith Rastogi, Founder and CEO, Locus

Nishith Rastogi, Founder and CEO, Locus, is responsible for business expansion across geographies and heads product at Locus. Here he talks to us.

What are the last-mile challenges in your work?

Nishith - Last-mile fulfillment, given its complexities, presents a myriad of challenges. India's vast geographical area, congested urban areas, inadequate road infrastructure, and diverse customer expectations are some of the major challenges in maintaining efficient and timely deliveries. On the customer-facing end, managing cash-on-delivery transactions, ensuring secure packaging, and addressing the high rate of returns further compound the challenges. Hence, a consistent and high-quality customer experience across multiple consumer channels becomes a mammoth task.

Embracing the omnichannel approach to fulfillment can help meet rising customer expectations, stay competitive, and ensure a seamless experience. And central to this approach is enhancing delivery control, speed, flexibility, and cost-efficiency through a technology-driven approach that automates and optimizes last-mile fulfillment processes.

On the operations front, empowering drivers, particularly those in the last-mile delivery space, poses a significant challenge. With the increasing demand for at-home deliveries, drivers need help to meet customer expectations around convenience and timely fulfillment. In India, drivers confront obstacles to these in the form of poor road infrastructure, unclear addresses, traffic congestion and inadequate route planning and maps. A survey by Boston Consulting Group highlighted that congestion costs in just four cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore - amounted to a staggering $22 billion. Inadequate timely deliveries result in frustrated customers constantly seeking updates. When drivers are dissatisfied and underproductive, it hampers the delivery experience, eroding customer trust and impeding business growth.

What are the ways to resolve them?

Nishith - The adoption of advanced technology solutions powered by AI, ML and data analytics can help solve this. These solutions can improve on-ground operational efficiency in route planning and order management, deliver robust partnerships with logistics service providers and can, foster a seamless flow of operations, surpass customer expectations, and unlock new avenues for growth in the dynamic Indian market. At Locus, we solve these and more issues for our clients through our real-world dispatch management platform, which is powered by advanced algorithms, ML.

The platform empowers enterprises to efficiently plan, route, dispatch orders and track hybrid fleets through a user-friendly interface. We recently introduced our latest offering: Delivery Linked Checkout, which enables retail businesses to select specific delivery slots, relieving them of the delivery burden and enhancing customer satisfaction. This strategic advancement has proven instrumental in driving customer delight and business profitability, propelling our clients to succeed.

Adoption of a driver-focused strategy that improves the drivers' quality of life. Our platform is embedded with unique algorithms to empower delivery personnel by allowing them to complete more deliveries in one shift through dynamic routing and scheduling. Our sophisticated system creates live performance reports, allowing drivers and management to assess their progress accurately. Additionally, we ensure prompt and accurate payouts to them, reinforcing trust and motivation. By prioritising driver satisfaction, we boost retention rates and elevate on-ground productivity for retail businesses.

How are the logistic needs of non-metro India different from those of metro-India and from those of foreign markets in terms of customer expectations?

Nishith - Understanding the contrasting logistic needs of India’s non-metro geographies, metro cities and foreign markets is crucial for delivering exceptional customer experiences, and all these three domains present unique dynamics that require strategic attention.In non-metro India, customers seek timely and as-promised fulfillment of their packages, accurate tracking information, and updates on their deliveries, including estimated arrival times and any potential delays. They rely on logistics providers for their goods on time. Customers in remote areas with rugged terrains, narrow roads, and infrastructural limitations expect logistics companies to adapt to these challenges by utilising vehicles suitable for rough roads, navigating through challenging terrains, and ensuring the safe arrival of their shipments.

However, customer expectations get steeper when we move towards the metros and even mature international markets. Here, lightning-fast/same-day deliveries, real-time order updates, same-day deliveries, multiple modes of communication, and easy returns have become the norm. The focus shifts towards convenience, speed, efficiency, and personalised experiences.

As a logistics company, we embrace the challenge of adapting to these varied landscapes. We recognise the importance of localising our operations, investing in technology, cultivating partnerships and fine-tuning our strategies to meet the distinctive logistic needs of these regions, enabling efficient and customer-centric last-mile deliveries.

What is the future vision of this compay?

Nishith - Locus has completed the initial scaling stage of a start-up journey. From here, we are now planning to scale up to a “centaur” (100 million in recurring revenue). We’ve proved that our solutions bring value to clients, which has helped us establish a global footprint with the support of our team of functional experts. India market for us holds tremendous potential, and we're excited about our journey here. All I can share at this point is that our team is working tirelessly to solve the unique challenges of our customers, especially across the retail and 3PL sector, which has delivered healthy margins for our business in the few years. 

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