LOGISTICS
W
ith so many moving parts that are vulnerable to disruption of all kinds – road traffic accidents , extreme weather and industrial action , for example – last-mile logistics has always been the most expensive and problematic part of supply chain .
But following the meteoric rise of ecommerce during the pandemic , the e-commerce boom is now asking more questions than ever of last mile , with sameday and next-day deliveries becoming the norm , rather than a bonus .
Such fulfilment strategies are hugely challenging to deliver , but this is now what modern retail logistics is all about . Which is fine , if your customers have inherent trust in your ability to come through on this promise , day after day , like clockwork . But what happens when that trust breaks down – or if it isn ’ t even there in the first place ?
“ There ’ s not the same level of trust in e-commerce in Latin America as in the US or Europe ”
ANDRÉS FELIPE ARCHILA , CO-FOUNDER , MELONN
Latam e-commerce sales are expected to rise to
$ 60bn by 2025
This vacuum of trust is exactly the situation that faced Melonn when it launched a few years ago , Melon is a logistics and ecommerce software solution provider that helps suppliers in Latin America ( Latam ) ship products on the same day across multiple locations .
“ We ’ re building the real , tangible half of e-commerce ,” says Melonn Co-founder Andrés Felipe Archila . “ We like to think of it as the missing half of Shopify .”
Using Melonn ’ s backend technology platform and its end-to-end fulfilment solution , e-commerce business in Latam can scale across sales platforms as well as cities and countries , delivering orders on the same or next day ,” says Archila .
But the challenge Melonn faces is one that most last-mile logistics operations in North America and Europe do not encounter : a lack of trust . Many shoppers in Latam have little faith that packages will arrive on time , or at all .
Similarly , local sellers worry about receiving payments , which are often not made until after delivery .
So the challenge for Archila and his colleagues is not only to actually deliver on time but to ease customer and seller concern by providing end to end transparency . supplychaindigital . com 103