Finding Our Ideals
When we're young, we naturally seek role models. In my time, it was Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachchan. We put their posters on our walls, studied their techniques, and celebrated their achievements. These role models gave us something to strive for, a vision of what awesome looks like.
In business, this need for ideals remains just as powerful, but often unfulfilled.
Last quarter, I was in a meeting with a VP of Logistics at one of India's fastest-growing fashion brands.
We were looking at their logistics data, and they pointed at their 3.2-day average delivery time in Gurugram and asked, "Naman, is this good?"
Simple question, right? But I paused. Despite having access to scores of shipment data, I couldn't give them a straight answer. Good compared to what? To last quarter? To competitors? What even counts as 'good' in this industry?
This scene has played out in countless meetings across Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai. Founders and logistics heads staring at dashboards full of numbers but missing the one thing that makes it click: context.
Without clear benchmarks, everybody is just guessing. They have the numbers but are missing the markers that make those numbers meaningful.
The View from the Mountain Top
The turning point came during an industry conference. Founders were sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. One person shared how they had transformed their delivery experience over the past year.
Another listened intently, visibly moved by what they heard. Later, they came up to me and said, "I didn't know that was even possible. We have been thinking in another direction altogether."
And that was it. I realized we don't just need data; we need inspiration. We need to see the mountain top to know where to climb. We need to know what others have done and what we could achieve if we pushed beyond our self-imposed limitations.
That got me thinking. How many brands out there were missing their full potential because they lacked inspirational benchmarks? What if we could give them that?
That's why we created Atlas. Not just some dry benchmarking tool with graphs and charts (though it has those too!). We wanted to give brands a source of inspiration – a moment of "Wow, I can do that!"
Just as we once looked up to Sachin or Amitabh, Atlas helps brands set meaningful benchmarks based on what's truly possible in their industry.
The Guiding Light Our Industry Needed
Imagine a founder realizing that their first attempt delivery rate can consistently reach 98% or that RTOs to remote areas can be cut in half. That’s what Atlas is all about. It opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
In business, as in life, we need something to aspire toward. We need to know what excellence looks like. And when you hit those milestones, that’s when you feel the sense of true achievement.
That's the deeper purpose of Atlas - to provide the inspiration that drives improvement. To show e-commerce brands not just where the industry stands today, but where it is going.
When a beauty brand sees that delivery to Tier 3 cities can consistently happen in two days, they're inspired to rethink their entire logistics strategy. When a fashion brand discovers that return rates can be half of what they're experiencing, they find renewed energy to transform their approach.
In the nine years I've been building ClickPost, I've learned that numbers on a page don’t move people. But inspiration? That’s something else.
And that’s what Atlas brings.
Because at the end of the day, we all need a dream we can aim for, a mountain top we can climb. A clear vision of excellence that pulls us forward.
Atlas is that North Star for e-commerce logistics.