Established in 2020, logistics and supply chain management integrator Locad has become a known name in the industry. The Singapore-headquartered start-up has become “the logistics engine,” enabling e-commerce brands with a cloud supply chain to grow their omnichannel business and automatically store, pack, ship, and track orders across Asia-Pacific.
Locad’s tech platform syncs inventory across online channels and organises end-to-end order fulfilment through its reliable network of warehouses and carriers across the Asia Pacific. Through this, brands and merchants get a geographically distributed warehousing infrastructure that allows them to stock goods closer to customers, enabling faster delivery at lower cost.
With an operational presence in Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Australia, Indonesia and China, Locad has completed the milestone of serving more than 300 brands as of now, as the venture synchronises inventory across sales channels and coordinates end-to-end order fulfilment, from storage to delivery, through a network of warehouses and shipping partners. The start-up was in the news in November 2024, by raising USD 9 million, in its bid to expand in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
A Start-up With Loads Of Opportunities
During the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping activities saw a solid surge, thereby necessitating robust logistics services. The use of AI-powered tools in e-commerce services, among other solutions to address the challenge, has also attracted investments from businesses looking to optimise operations and save costs. Locad’s goal is clear here: to provide a platform rich with AI-driven features and better analytics, for addressing demand and inventory-related concerns in a seamless manner.
Among the key services provided by the start-up, let’s start with the flagship one called “Fulfilment,” which is helping 21st century e-commerce ventures through its omni-channel fulfilment solution. With strategically located warehouses across the globe, Locad, as a B2B fulfilment partner, prevents supply chain disruptions and helps its partners gain a competitive advantage by receiving, storing, and packaging items for further transit.
Locad acts as a distributor in moving bulk orders of products along the partner’s supply chain to other fulfilment centres, factories, or customer addresses, thereby offering value-added services to help streamline and grow these businesses as part of an extended partnership.
Locad’s multi-channel fulfilment capabilities help the partner brands keep up with shoppers’ expectations, by connecting storefronts (Shopify, Amazon, Ebay, Shopee, and Lazada), managing inventory, and easily fulfilling orders from various channels, without any extra cost and labour. The Locad Dashboard also gives these e-commerce businesses consolidated visibility, by managing their inventory and fulfilment process across channels with ease.
The dashboard provides the partner businesses features like inventory and shipment management, expedited pick, pack, and ship process, last-mile carrier management, multi-marketplace integration, reduced errors and turnaround time, apart from helping e-commerce businesses to understand evolving industry trends and align their business needs as per the that, by connecting their marketplaces with the start-up’s pre-built integrations.
Knowing the fact that the storage of an e-commerce brand dictates its capabilities to accept orders (playing a crucial role in the seamless flow of packages through the fulfilment process), Locad also offers warehousing storage services to its partner businesses, allowing the latter to store inventory in strategically located warehouses across the globe. The clients can efficiently manage inventory levels to meet customer demand, apart from reducing transportation costs by positioning inventory closer to customers.
With “Locad Logistics Engine,” brands can effectively integrate the start-up’s storage and dashboard for real-time inventory updates across marketplaces. This ensures transparent availability and helps in avoiding out-of-stock orders, while keeping a check on inventory wastage. Merchants also get accurate order forecasts, paramount for resource allocation necessary to support the fulfilment of orders to keep up with marketplace and customer expectations.
Expedited product shipping, in a timely and efficient manner, becomes a critical success recipe for any e-commerce brand. Locad steps in here by coordinating with carriers, and negotiating rates, to cut costs and speed up delivery times. With real-time tracking, businesses and customers can monitor shipments on the Locad Logistics Engine. Built to deliver accuracy and reliability in the fulfilment process, The start-up’s “Shipping Engine” seamlessly integrates with its warehouse operations, and carrier networks to facilitate effective movement of the parcel.
Through Locad’s help, e-commerce businesses handpick their preferred shipping carrier, set specific allocation rules to govern order fulfilment, and specify pickup times that work best for their operations. They also keep a close eye on key metrics like order status, sales volume, and revenue, spot potential issues and promptly initiate remedial measures, all from a single, comprehensive dashboard, making data analysis simpler and faster and most importantly, ensuring smooth and continuous operation for e-commerce businesses.
“Locad Cross Border” helps ecommerce businesses to maximise their business growth beyond borders, by availing tailored solutions at competitive rates. The start-up’s freight service (via air and sea) manages every aspect of transportation right from customs clearance to destination handling to “Locad Warehouse.” To sweeten things up, the start-up, through its “Value Added Services,” helps brands and products get registered for selling on Local marketplaces.
Rewriting Logistics Industry Rulebook
During peak seasons, high order volumes daily get taken care of by Locad’s effective inventory management across multiple warehouses, which in turn reduces fulfilment time and increases customer satisfaction. All these e-commerce companies need to do is integrate Locad’s enterprise fulfilment solutions into their existing supply chains. Locad’s effective Management Systems will then empower these businesses’ operation control and optimisation tools, apart from streamlining last-mile carrier management solutions.
Any large e-commerce enterprise constantly seeks solutions to navigate fluctuating demand without compromising efficiency or incurring excessive costs. Manual inventory overview doesn’t work here, as it leads to errors in warehouse staffing, thus losing out on the order volume. Another worry is a lack of scalable fulfilment, which can lead to a heavy cost burden concerning items damaged/lost or orders not catered.
Locad’s automated inventory and warehouse management for adaptable staffing takes care of these issues, by ensuring accurate fulfilment and helping businesses embrace scalability and adapt to fluctuations in demand without any supply chain disruptions. It ensures distributed fulfilment, as inventory gets stored across multiple locations, strategically positioning products closer to customers. By decentralising inventory storage, brands can leverage a network of warehouses located in key geographic regions.
Enterprise brands deploy effective management of inventory levels to ensure supply and demand, while minimising costs and maximising operational efficiency. With the rising demand, brands partner with fulfilment players to analyse demand patterns to determine the optimal levels of inventory to keep on hand.
However, they often face problems like frequent stockouts, that lead to heavy business impact in terms of lost sales, apart from poor visibility on inventory tracking or marketplace performance to make effective stocking decisions. Locad again solves this by optimising the inventory, preventing stockouts and reducing inventory wastage with the start-up’s inventory management systems that keep the users informed.
Enterprise brands are built by the loyalty and satisfaction of their customers, making it crucial for them to prioritise exceptional after-sales experiences. Fast shipping plays a pivotal role in this regard, serving as a benchmark of customer satisfaction in today’s e-commerce landscape. Enterprise brands are prioritising swift order fulfilment and seeking logistics partners who can aid this vision. Locad steps once again in this domain by increasing repeat sales thus driving long-term revenue growth, along with establishing strong brand loyalty and trust with effective and fast shipping options through Locad’s carrier management.
A Promising Road Ahead
The start-up is also empowering SMEs (small and medium enterprises) with seamless fulfilment solutions, apart from enabling frictionless e-commerce for brands and merchants across every possible sales channel. The “Pick-Pack-Ship” process is streamlining and optimising fulfilment effortlessly by gaining full control over inventory management and tracking, order processing, and workflow management. The partner businesses are enjoying the market edge over their rivals, by getting complete visibility across their supply chain from a single view dashboard.
When it comes to exporting goods, Locad is helping e-commerce businesses to achieve cost savings via optimised routes, reduced fuel consumption, and fewer delivery errors, contributing to improved profitability of these brands. The start-up’s “Multiple Carrier Integration” is ensuring the most optimised version of the fulfilment process (for partner brands) with Locad’s “Last Mile Capabilities.” From strategic route optimisation to selecting the ideal carrier, Locad is making lives easier.
Within just five years of its inception, Locad has truly become “the logistics engine,” opening up a host of possibilities in front of the e-commerce brands with a cloud supply chain to grow their omnichannel business.