Under logistics, you can define the settings of your transportation.
STANDARD SETUP
Destinations
Destinations are locations where returns are sent. Destinations exist in two types:
Own Destination: the location of your return center. Destinations do have a Location Name and Address that appear on the shipping label (learn more).
Approved Location: the location of a Logistics Service Provider that you have connected with.
Regions
Regions are a combination of countries that are logically grouped as these countries have shared characteristics, such as the same destination. You are free to define regions. Regions define countries where returns are allowed.
The available countries are determined by the countries that have been allowed in the account settings. You can create a simple "all" region but also define regions per geographical area.
Setting up specific regions is advised if you will have different logistics plans per region or per combination of region and return type. If you only have one logistics plan (one carrier and one destination) create an "all" region (learn more).
Carriers
Carriers represent transportation services that can be used to ship returns from an origin location (in a country) to a destination location. Carriers are supported in 2 types:
Virtual carrier: you can set up a virtual carrier if you want your customer to organize and pay for the shipping. 12Return will create a barcoded address label for your customer.
Carrier service: we have teamed up with transportation companies like UPS, DHL, and TNT to offer integrated transportation services for prepaid and tracked returns. Easily connect your carrier account and 12Return will create a prepaid shipping label for your customer (learn more).
Logistics Service Providers
You can find Logistics Service Providers who offer returns management operations services. Once you have connected with an LSP you can create a destination from an approved LSP location, This destination can be included in a route to ship returns to the LSP.
Routes
Routes are a combination of a region, a carrier, a destination, and a return type that together determine the routing of a return in your reverse supply chain.
The setup of a route follows a logic:
Each route contains 1 region
Each route contains 1 destination
Each route can be allocated to 1 or multiple return types
Each route contains 1 or multiple carriers
You can set up an unlimited number of routes but you need to be aware of route conflicts. 12Return mitigates route conflicts by applying route sorting (learn more).