iF Lastmile has a clear goal: to bring to the online world the flexibility and personalized attention of the physical shopping experience. They make it possible by arming brands with a fulfillment service capable of handling deliveries and returns on the day and 30 minute slot that the client chooses, combined with a fully personalized attention and support to the brand and its client during the whole journey.
They are currently working with top DTC brands such as Northweek, Laura Vecino or Hemper and have the backing of a 1.5M€ round from funds such as K Fund, Lanai and other private investors from important tech and industrial firms.
The founding team has worked for over 10 years advising great retailers and logistic companies around Europe on the design and implementation of their fulfillment operations. Their experience has shown them that 91% of clients will not buy again from a brand that does not fulfill the delivery promise or that has slow and rigid delivery options. For them, the key to have a reliable and fast service resides in the fulfillment process. “It is not the chosen carrier that allows Amazon to handle those incredibly short times in prime, it is their ability to accurately fulfill orders much faster than a traditional center”, says Marcello, co-CEO of iF Lastmile.
Their view is that there are no available solutions that can fulfill these ambitions in a scalable and economic way for ecommerce brands. “Brands can put up a store with Shopify in just minutes but they cannot plug into the operational and tech power of a big player in a click. There is where we play, solving the most complex piece of the puzzle with a very economic price and without any fixed costs for the brands”
Their model consists in breaking the traditional fulfillment operation in small blocks: “Big warehouses are good at preparing big things but for the case of individual ecommerce packages they generate unnecessary standardizations that are totally opposed to the customer centric vision of a brand. We operate urban fulfillment shops, like back stores for the brand, with a team fully dedicated to the them and their clients, going away from a one-size fits all approach”
With their technology and proprietary fulfillment network they reach an accuracy, flexibility and personalization level on order preparation much superior to that of any other fulfillment center. Brands obtain a prime service combined with a direct contact with the fulfillment shop employees to support any of their sales channels, online and physical.
They connect in less than 30 min to any of the main ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Prestashop or Woocommerce and allow brands to control the status of their orders and stock levels in real time.
They offer modular services, from an integral fulfillment option (from click to delivery and return) to delivery from store services and specialized returns, adapting to brands of different sizes and operational capabilities.
iF Lastmile has fulfillment shops in the main cities of Spain and Portugal and counts with the support of the main international carriers and a network of more than 500 riders.
In the very short term, they will finalize the consolidation of their presence in Spain and Portugal, extending their model to the more than 80,000 brands that are still delivering in more than 24 hours. In the next 5 years, they want to become the Shopify of the last mile, offering a flexible service that can be adapted to any brand in Europe and Latin America.