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Active Ants detects shipment exceptions within 30 minutes to improve delivery experiences
Active Ants was founded in 2010 to make e-fulfilment more accurate and efficient through innovation and automation. Today, it’s one of the largest fulfilment players in the Netherlands.
CHALLENGE
No direct insight into irregularities during delivery
“In mid-2021, our customers’ call for more insight into the performance of the couriers we use became increasingly clear and louder,” says Roeland Lengers, IT Director at Active Ants.
“Tracking shipments is a non-essential activity for Active Ants. Our core activity is sending packages as quickly as possible. We soon realised that uniform tracking of shipment statuses could work as a ‘black box’ for us.”
SOLUTION
Unique shipping insights enable Active Ants’ fulfilment clients to automate customer service processes
Rather than having to secure additional internal resources, Active Ants decided to look for an existing solution to offer an extra service for their customers to stay ahead of the competition.
With Shipping Intelligence (formerly Tracey), Active Ants receives the most important status transitions and exceptions per shipment without having to poll carriers. They used this data to build KPI screens within Maya, based on WebComponents.
Right now, problems with various parcel carriers are detected within 30 minutes and sent back to the Active Ants system. With this, the retailer clients of Active Ants can automate the customer service processes to proactively keep the end consumer informed.
RESULTS
Calculated events allow Active Ants to detect shipping issues 10+ hours before couriers
Shipping data analysis offers a solid basis for predictions about the timely and error-free delivery of parcels – enabling Active Ants to offer exceptional service to their customers, while also helping to further improve Sendcloud’s Shipping Intelligence.
“These machine learning models are currently being trained, but are already showing results with an accuracy of 89% or higher. This means that we already predict delays with a high degree of certainty and can provide feedback more than 10 hours before the courier itself,” says Sander Hak, former Product Manager of Tracey (now Shipping Intelligence).
“Make or buy” decision
Rather than building in-house, Active Ants partnered with Sendcloud to feed shipping data straight into Maya, their custom WMS.
Roeland Lengers
IT Director, Active Ants
“The choice fell on Tracey because it was a young and innovative company where we could express our wishes. Together, we were able to connect the mutual systems quickly and adequately.”
Automated customer service processes and more insight into courier performance
Live shipping insights flow into clients’ workflows, surfacing exceptions before they reach the customer.
Jean Lahaye
Co-founder, Active Ants
“We pass on the data we receive from Tracey to our customers, enabling them to derive value from it. This ensures that, as Active Ants, we offer just that little bit of extra service to support our customers in their e-commerce activities.”
From reactive to proactive support
Clients now act on shipping signals as they happen, reaching out about delays before the "where is my order?" calls start.
Jean Lahaye
Co-founder, Active Ants
“We see that our customers anticipate the data that we share and adjust their work processes to inform their customers better and more proactively.”
10+ hours ahead of couriers
Calculated events flag at-risk shipments more than 10 hours before couriers report problems, with 89%+ accuracy.
Sander Hak
Former Product Manager, Sendcloud (Shipping Intelligence)
“These machine learning models are currently being trained, but are already showing results with an accuracy of 89% or higher. This means that we already predict delays with a high degree of certainty and can provide feedback more than 10 hours before the courier itself.”
Ready to turn issues into positive experiences like Active Ants does?
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