Verified Business Case · Retail·4 min read

A hidden tax on every order.

When ops defaults to one supplier because comparing quotes is too slow, you stop saving time and start leaking margin.

How a $4B+ retailer paid back its RPA build in under a month.

Payback Period

< 1 Month

Confirmed ROI on build cost

Freight Cost

8-12%

Estimated reduction per order

Manual Processing

-75%

Operator steps per order removed

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The Structural Flaw

A large retail group was sourcing freight on high-cost orders by hand. Operators were keying details into a single preferred courier's portal, booking the job, and moving on, even though competitive pricing was available across other carriers. The same pattern showed up on inventory transfers between sites: manual bookings, no comparison, default to the incumbent. At the group's scale, every order was quietly leaking margin to a workflow no one had time to fix. Adding a procurement step to compare quotes by hand wasn't an option either, it would just slow fulfilment down even further.

The Execution Engine

We built a UiPath RPA bot that takes over the freight sourcing loop end to end. For each qualifying order it pulls the shipment details, queries multiple couriers in parallel for live quotes, picks the most cost-effective option against the service rules, books the job, and dispatches the shipping documents. The same bot handles inventory transfer bookings between sites using the same comparison logic. Operators stop typing into carrier portals and start reviewing exceptions, which is the only part of the job that actually needs a human.

Deployed Stack

UiPath RPAMulti-Carrier Quote EngineAutomated Document Dispatch

Verified Outcomes

  • Build cost paid back inside the first month of deployment.
  • Estimated 8 to 12% reduction in freight spend per order through automated multi-carrier comparison.
  • About 75% of the manual operator time per order removed, including courier search, booking, and document dispatch.
  • Inventory transfers between sites now route through the same cost-comparison logic, not a default supplier.
  • Implied annual savings in the $600K to $1.5M+ range based on the confirmed payback period and freight volumes.

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