Often, a part of something is used to identify the whole, like "wheels" as a stand-in for a car. Or vice versa—when the "government" denies something, it's usually one minister or bureaucrat who has issued the statement.
This is called synecdoche (pronounced si-nek-duh-kee).
And it applies perfectly to how we consider a sales representative synonymous with the brand they're hawking. Or a delivery executive with their e-commerce company. The blowback food delivery major Zomato received online recently for its customer care executive's faux pas is as good an example as it gets.
So, it's understandable that Zomato and rival Swiggy want to keep a close eye on their delivery agents. But that's bad news for Shadowfax, a third-party logistics startup, writes Yusuf Bhandarkar in his first article on our website www.multimediastudio.net
Zomato and Swiggy accounted for over a third of Shadowfax's $60 million revenue in the year ended March 2021. With newer offerings such as grocery and corporate meal delivery, the foodtech duopoly is well positioned to optimise delivery rather than blindly outsource it to Shadowfax.
Swiggy and Zomato, besides e-commerce giant Flipkart and e-pharmacy 1mg, are among the 170 brands Shadowfax services in 600 cities. (Flipkart is also an investor in Shadowfax.) On average, around 40,000 delivery partners fulfill 500,000 orders every day.
If Shadowfax's clients are increasingly becoming its competitors, its actual rivals like Rapido are upping their game in hyperlocal delivery. So what is Shadowfax's way out of this predicament? The answer to that is in this well-reported and insightful article today.
