Same day delivery isn’t just for Amazon — Our investment in Swyft
By Eurie Kim
If you had the option for same-day delivery versus standard shipping when checking out on your favorite e-commerce site, wouldn’t you take it?
Assuming the answer is a resounding yes, you’re not the only one — today people expect to receive their parcels no later than the day after they order, and 46% of respondents abandoned shopping carts online as a result of shipping times taking too long.
Faster delivery options are no longer a nice-to-have feature; they have become the expectation for us as consumers, compounded by the pandemic and Amazon’s star attractions: same-day and two-day delivery (73% of consumers shop at Amazon because of the fast, free shipping).
E-commerce broadly will have its first trillion-dollar year of sales in 2022 as people continue to shift their spending habits online amid the COVID-19 pandemic and more than 70% of consumers cite convenience (77%) and free shipping (72%) as their top reasons to shop online (Deloitte). This new norm is driving the $67B parcel market to figure out new ways to enable quicker delivery for all brands and merchants, not just Amazon. The last mile delivery category alone is slated to grow to $51B by 2022.
For most other companies that don’t have Amazon’s behemoth infrastructure to support same-day or two-day delivery speeds, there are very few e-commerce and logistics partners that can offer the ability to economically offer fast delivery options at price points consumers are willing to pay. As a result, Amazon has continued to take consumer share of mind and share of wallet.
Enter Forerunner’s newest investment Swyft, a software-enabled B2B marketplace that solves for scale, affordability, and accessibility in same-day last mile logistics by connecting retailers and merchants to a network of local courier companies. We are proud to be co-leading Swyft’s $17.5M Series A with Inovia Capital, as well as Shopify and return backers, Golden VC and Panache Ventures.
By providing workflow software to existing local delivery service providers that have historically been saddled with manual processes and unable to capitalize on the step-change acceleration in the ecommerce ecosystem, Swyft enables local courier and delivery providers to help any merchant or retailer pull off what consumers want — same day delivery (at a great price).
Unlike app-based couriers and large logistics companies, like Postmates, Instacart, UPS and FedEx, Swyft can scale without investing in capital-intensive fixed assets or managing large pools of gig workers. The company’s go-to-market strategy includes leveraging its logistics automation software to improve operational efficiency among its deep network of delivery partners.
The team behind Swyft is as impressive as the company’s vision. Co-founder and CEO Aadil Kazmi, along with CTO Zee Hamid and Head of Sales Maraz Rahman, came together a year ago to solve same-day delivery for brands and retailers of all sizes. Witnessing how companies like Amazon and Walmart invested billions of dollars in logistics to support faster delivery for shoppers, Aadil wanted to provide the same for retailers and brands that lacked affordable and accessible solutions. In his words, “a low-cost solution to ‘arm the rebels’ hasn’t existed, until now.” Aadil and his team are deeply ingrained in the space, with cumulative experiences spanning local delivery execution at Amazon and ecommerce returns at BlackCart.
At Forerunner, we are always on the hunt for companies that create magical experiences for consumers, and Swyft exists in the Venn Diagram of experiences that are both more convenient and affordable. Cheers to Aadil and the entire Swyft team as they make same-day delivery for retailers, brands, and all of us a reality.
