How is this different from the multi-carrier shipping platform we already run?

A shipping platform is a booking layer: it holds your rate cards, prints labels and manifests, and hands the parcel over. Locus sits above it and makes the decisions a booking layer cannot make, because it does not dispatch the delivery: which carrier and service this parcel should use today, what promise to show at checkout, what to do mid-transit when that promise slips, and how the return comes back.

Do we have to replace our OMS?

No. Locus takes orders from your OMS, ERP or ecommerce platform over API and returns decisions and promises to it. The OMS stays the system of record and Locus becomes the decision layer between it and your carriers. Integration is measured in weeks, not a re-platforming programme.

Does this cover returns as well as outbound?

Yes, and in fashion it is usually where payback lands first. A return is treated as a decision rather than a label: home pickup, locker, drop-off point or store, chosen on cost, customer location and live network capacity, consolidated by area, and fed back into carrier scoring.

How long does adding a new carrier actually take?

A carrier already in the library is configuration, so days rather than months. A brand-new carrier integration typically takes a few weeks depending on their API and their label and manifest requirements. Carrier onboarding is run by Locus Forward Deployed Engineers alongside your team, so you are not waiting on a platform release.

How fast could we be live?

Most parcel deployments go live in weeks. A typical path is a one-day operations assessment, then a first market or brand live on carrier allocation and checkout promise, then returns and the remaining markets. You keep the same carriers and the same contracts throughout.

AGENTIC TMS FOR FASHION & APPAREL PARCELS

Your shoppers expect delivery excellence. Give it to them on every parcel.

Q: Which European carriers and pickup networks are pre-integrated?

More than 1,000 carriers and networks are already integrated globally, including major European parcel carriers, national postal operators and the main locker and pickup-point networks. We confirm your specific contracted list before the assessment, and anything missing is added during onboarding.

Locus agents pick the carrier, set the delivery date your shopper sees, step in when a parcel slips, and route the return. On the carriers you already use.

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The fashion parcel reality

Fashion breaks delivery in four places

Printing a label does not fix any of them. Each one is a decision someone has to make, on every order.

Parcels, drop week Booked capacity

Demand spikes. Capacity does not.

A drop lands, your usual carriers fill up, and the overflow goes to whoever has room that day.

Online apparel20–30%

General merchandise~10%

Typical online return rates, varies by market

One in four orders comes back

Every return is a second delivery to plan, pay for and get back on sale.

DELIVERY BY

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

The date on this page moves conversion

The delivery date sells the basket

Pad the date and you lose the sale. Guess it and you miss it.

Express, home€5.40

Locker, next day€3.10

Economy, home€2.90

Cheapest label, second-best outcome

The cheapest carrier is rarely the right one

Weight, postcode, pickup preference and duty change the best answer on every parcel.

Four decisions, made for you on every parcel

Follow one order from checkout to return. At each step an agent makes the call on live cost, capacity and carrier performance, then acts on it.

ONE ORDER, TOP TO BOTTOM

STEP 01 At checkout

What date do we show the customer?

A padded lead time, the same for every postcode.

LOCUS AGENT DECIDES

“Arrives Wednesday.” Calculated from today’s cut-off times, live carrier speed and where the stock sits.

A day faster, and it holds

STEP 02 At dispatch

Which carrier should take this parcel?

The cheapest one in the postcode, on a rule set last quarter.

LOCUS AGENT DECIDES

The carrier that can hit Wednesday, scored on cost, on-time record and capacity left today. When demand spikes, capacity is allocated automatically.

Cost aware, promise safe

LATER THAT WEEK

STEP 03 In transit

The parcel is running late. Who fixes it?

Nobody, until the customer emails to ask.

LOCUS AGENT DECIDES

The agent moves it to a pickup point nearby and tells the customer, before Wednesday is missed.

Fewer where-is-my-order calls

STEP 04 On return

It is coming back. What is the cheapest way home?

Email a label and wait. No view of cost, or of days lost.

LOCUS AGENT DECIDES

Pickup point drop-off, batched with the other returns in that area and routed straight back to sellable stock.

Cheaper to collect, back on sale sooner

Your shipping platform books parcels. Locus agents decide them.

1,000+ carriers and pickup networks already integrated on Locus

+ your contracted carriers

Your own rates and contracts. Adding one more is a configuration, not a project.

Carrier not integrated yet? Hours, not weeks.

The carrier onboarding agent reads the carrier’s API docs, builds the integration, maps the labels and manifests, and tests it against live shipments. No ticket, no release train, no waiting for a sprint.

THE OLD WAY

6–12 weeks

Scoping, a developer queue, a release window

WITH THE AGENT

Same day

Docs in, integration built, tested, live

✓Regional carriers and pickup networks, not just the majors

✓Labels, manifests and tracking mapped, not just the rate call

✓So a peak-season carrier is a decision, not a project

CARRIER ONBOARDING AGENT watch it run

AGENTIC TMS

Carrier onboarding is one of eight agents running your network.

Carrier Dispatch Customer Settlement +4 more

See all the agents

Case study · A leading ASEAN apparel retailer

A new carrier live in 3 days, not 3 months.

A global apparel retailer ships almost entirely through carriers. Adding one used to be a three month engineering project, and shoppers never saw a delivery date they could trust.

BEFORE

Three months of build to add one carrier

Every carrier reporting status in its own codes

A vague lead time at checkout, then the calls

WITH LOCUS

New carriers live in days, with no dev cycle

One standard status across every carrier

An accurate delivery date on the website

3 days

to activate a new carrier, down from 3 months

40%+

fewer where-is-my-order and returns queries

<500ms

to generate a carrier label

Same carrier contracts Live across multiple markets Tens of millions of parcels a year

1-day operations assessment

A one-day assessment of your parcel decisions

We map outbound and returns against your own carrier data, and show which of the four decisions are being made by default.

✓Your true on-time rate, against the promise the customer saw

✓Where allocation, surcharges and failed attempts leak margin

✓Cost per return, and days from doorstep back to sellable

No systems change to run it. Read-only carrier and order data is enough.

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Questions we get asked first

A shipping platform is a booking layer: rate cards, labels, manifests, handover. Locus sits above it and makes the calls it cannot, because it doesn’t dispatch the delivery: which carrier for this parcel, what promise to publish, what to do mid-transit, how the return comes back. Most customers keep their shipping platform underneath.

No. Locus takes orders from your OMS, ERP or ecommerce platform over API and returns decisions and promises to it. The OMS stays the system of record; Locus becomes the decision layer between it and your carriers. Integration is measured in weeks and it is additive.

Yes, and in fashion it is usually where payback lands first. A return is a decision, not a label: home pickup, locker, drop-off or store, chosen on cost, location and live capacity, then consolidated by area. The outcome feeds back into carrier scoring.

More than 1,000 carriers and networks are integrated globally, including the major European parcel carriers, national postal operators and the main locker and pickup-point networks. Rather than publish a list that ages badly, we check your contracted carriers before the assessment and tell you which are live today.

A carrier already in the library is configuration: days rather than months, rate cards and service rules included. A genuinely new carrier is typically a few weeks, driven by their API and label requirements. Onboarding is run by Forward Deployed Engineers alongside your team, not queued behind a platform release.

Most parcel deployments go live in weeks: the one-day assessment, then a first market or brand on carrier allocation and checkout promise, then returns, then the rest. Same carriers, same contracts throughout, which is what makes the first result attributable.