ZUS Coffee Shortens Counter-to-Couch Delivery Time of Its 130+ Outlets With NextBillion.ai

About the Company

Malaysia-based ZUS Coffee is a tech-driven coffee chain that has made specialty coffee affordable and accessible to all. Launched in December 2019, the company has over 150k+ active app users and 130+ outlets across Malaysia.

The Problem

On average, ZUS delivers around 30 cups of coffee every minute! Needless to say, an optimized order allocation and dispatch system is mission-critical for the coffee chain’s business to ensure on-time and accurate doorstep delivery at scale.

Prior to NextBillion.ai, ZUS Coffee used a leading location platform’s distance matrix API to calculate the distance between each order and its outlets. It utilized the travel distance and time estimates generated by the API to optimize delivery operations — assign orders to its nearest outlets and delivery partners.

But the company ran into three major roadblocks while scaling up its business with its former mapping platform’s distance matrix API:

1. The mapping provider’s poor map data quality computed inaccurate travel distance and time estimates, resulting in inaccurate ETAs and delayed deliveries
2. The matrix size limitation was destabilizing ZUS’ expansion plans
3. High API costs were impacting the coffee chain’s profitability 

As the above-mentioned three factors were slowing down ZUS’ business growth, it decided to make a strategic change and pivot quickly by switching to NextBillion.ai.

Our Solution:

The specialty coffee delivery platform was looking for a reliable, affordable, scalable, and customizable mapping solution. NextBillion.ai’s Distance Matrix API ticked all the right boxes for ZUS Coffee.

• With NextBillion.ai, the company has access to fresh and relevant map data. ZUS can ingest historical, third-party, and real-time map data, and use the created data intelligence to power the APIs.
• The coffee chain can generate accurate ETAs by accounting for a wide range of variables, such as driver behavior & preferences, business-specific use cases, waypoints, traffic rules & regulations, temporary & permanent restrictions, road/routing attributes, and vehicle type.
• The large matrix size (5000×5000) of NextBillion.ai’s Distance Matrix API enables ZUS to calculate accurate and precise travel times and distances between multiple origins and destinations. After breaking free from the matrix size limitations (50×50) of its previous mapping provider and upgrading to NextBillion.ai, the company is now able to scale freely.
• Our top-notch customer service ensures that the two-year-old company receives timely error reports, faces near-zero downtime, and gets swift assistance around the clock. 
• NextBillion.ai’s high-performance, low-cost API coupled with a flexible pricing model allows ZUS to increase its sales efficiency and maximize growth opportunities.

The Outcome

ZUS Coffee went from 1 store in 2019 to 137 ~ stores (and still counting) in 2022. Since the beginning of our association, NextBillion.ai has been supporting ZUS’ exponential growth with our distance matrix API.

There has been a rapid increase in API consumption as ZUS continues to add more outlets and active app users across Malaysia. The NextBillion.ai team is ensuring that accuracy, precision and speed are consistently maintained while serving thousands of API requests every minute. 

With the help of the insights generated from NextBillion.ai’s Distance Matrix API and custom map data, ZUS has been able to:

• Hit all on-time delivery KPIs and improve delivery efficiency
• Reduce delivery times — from store to door
• Enhance customer experience across all its outlet and app
• Assess the performance of its outlets and make strategic changes
• Better plan its retail expansion for the upcoming months and year
• Improve the cost-effectiveness and bottom line of its business