Abstract

The case is about India’s leading crowdsourced logistics platform Shadowfax Technologies’ (Shadowfax) launch of the SuperApp, a single delivery platform for riders and sellers. Shadowfax provided an on-demand hyperlocal delivery service for its clients, including restaurants and retailers, across the country. It had a crowdsourced network of active delivery partners to deliver goods and services for the businesses. The company’s technology platform connected delivery executives with the e-commerce companies and businesses. Shadowfax launched a delivery app called the SuperApp to address the challenges faced by delivery executives in accessing partners on different platforms. The company believed that riders should have access to all companies through one app, instead of having to register themselves individually with each company and thus came up with the SuperApp. The app made the process of accessing all companies convenient and saving delivery partners time. Also, it empowered the delivery partners to access multiple opportunities such as daily payouts and financial benefits like loans and insurance on a single platform. With the launch of the SuperApp, Shadowfax was able to provide last-mile logistic solutions to its business partners and seemed set to become the all-in-one solution of the on-demand delivery marketplace for enterprises.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the demand for a business-to-business (B2B) logistics platform
• Analyze the importance of an on-demand hyperlocal delivery service
• Discuss how Shadofax’s SuperApp can facilitate the delivery system

Keywords

Hyperlocal delivery player; Plug-and-play format; Multi-modal platform; Delivery service sector; Partner network; Tech-enabled one stop delivery solutions; Hyperlocal distribution ecosystem; Tech-enabled route optimization; Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback program; Blue-collar job; On-demand delivery marketplace; Business-to-business (B2B)