Overiew - Recommendation (Allocation)

For any brand that works with multiple courier partners, it is critical to ensure that every order is allocated to the most suitable courier. Different brands follow different allocation logics depending on their business priorities, such as serviceability, pricing, performance, load balancing, or custom rules.

The Clickpost Recommendation API is built to handle these requirements by analyzing multiple factors and recommending the courier that best fits the defined logic.

Below are the different types of rules in which a brand can configure its recommendation logic:

1. Filters

Filters allow brands to narrow down the eligible set of courier partners based on specific conditions.

• Example: A brand may choose to allocate orders to couriers that support COD, are Forward orders and are picked from a given pincode to be allocated to 3 out its total 5 couriers

• Once the filtering is applied, the order can be allocated to any courier partner from the filtered set.

• This gives flexibility in excluding couriers that don’t meet the required conditions for certain orders.

2. Ordered List 

Brands can define a strict order of preference to ensure priority-based allocation for their courier partners.

• Example: If the brand prefers Delhivery > Bluedart > Xpressbees, the API will always try Delhivery first, and if not available, move to Bluedart, then Xpressbees.

• With this approach, brands can ensure that orders are allocated strictly in line with the defined priority order.

3. Performance-Based Allocation (PBA)

Performance is one of the most important factors when deciding courier allocation. The PBA model allows brands to assign couriers based on their past performance across:

• Pricing: cost-effectiveness per shipment.

• Committed SLA: orders are being delivered based on the defined TAT

• Average TAT: orders are being delivered in the average TAT defined 

• SLA Breached: percentage of orders where SLA breached from total orders

• RTO%: return-to-origin rate, an important cost metric.

• Failed Delivery%: frequency of unsuccessful delivery attempts.
  
  

By using PBA, brands can automatically allocate couriers that deliver the best results on these performance metrics.

4. Load Distribution

Brands often want to distribute their total shipment volume across multiple couriers to avoid dependency and balance operational risk.

• Example: A brand may decide to allocate 40% of shipments to Bluedart, 35% to Delhivery, and 25% to Xpressbees.

• These distributions can be defined in the load allocation panel, and orders will be automatically routed based on the configured percentages.

• This helps in managing courier relationships, ensuring fair allocation, and avoiding overloading a single partner.

5. ODA (Out of Delivery Area)

Clickpost maintains historical data on courier performance across pincode–courier combinations.

• If a certain courier has a history of marking a pincode as non-serviceable or showing poor delivery performance there, more than a set threshold, Clickpost can flag the same pincode as ODA 

• This way the courier could be eliminated based on its past serviceability performance

• This feature significantly reduces the risk of RTOs 

6. Additional Rules/Configs:

• Threshold Creation:
  Brands can define a time-based threshold for courier serviceability. Within the set timeframe, the courier will be eligible for allocation; outside of it, no orders will be assigned to that courier.
  
  

• Blacklisted Pincodes:
  Brands can blacklist specific pincodes for COD, Prepaid, or both for a given courier and timeframe. Any orders from these pincodes will automatically be excluded from allocation to that courier.

• Rule Iteration:
  Rule Iteration ensures seamless order allocation when the initially matched rule can’t be applied. If all couriers under a matched rule are inactive or non-serviceable, the system automatically moves to the next eligible rule that meets the conditions — ensuring orders continue to be allocated without disruption.

• Load Distribution within Filters:
  Brands can define percentage-based allocation among eligible couriers using the Load Distribution option. This ensures that couriers filtered under specific rules are distributed smoothly according to the configured load percentages.