Retailer fines and chargebacks can quietly erode margins for manufacturers. In our case study, you’ll discover how a large North American private‑label food and beverage manufacturer used e2open Logistics as a Service, a managed logistics service, toservice, to reduce costs, improve on-time delivery, and gain clearer operational insight.
The situation
When it comes to logistics, on‑time delivery is both a service metric and a direct driver of profitability. This is especially true for the food and beverage industry, where shipping high volumes of shelf‑stable, refrigerated, and frozen products to major retailers means tight appointment windows and strict compliance requirements. When deliveries slip, retailer chargebacks can add up quickly.
The manufacturer featured in our case study partnered with e2open Logistics as a Service (LaaS). They needed to understand why these penalties were being incurred, but fragmentation limited visibility. On‑time performance metrics and fines were being tracked across multiple retailer portals, formats, and spreadsheets, leaving the LaaS team stuck reconciling data instead of fixing the underlying execution issues. Without a centralized view, chargebacks remained disconnected from transportation reality.
The challenge
The fragmented nature of the manufacturer’s logistics operations created several obstacles to performance improvement and cost reduction:
Retailer penalties were quietly eroding margins, with late delivery fines climbing fast and insights arriving too late to act.
Chargeback data lived outside the transportation workflow, making it difficult to link penalties back to the execution details that mattered: lanes, carriers, tender acceptance, and exceptions within the transportation management system.
Manual reporting for each cycle was time consuming, which limited visibility and decision-making. The manufacturer needed to connect chargebacks to execution data, modernize reporting, and move from reactive problem-solving to proactive cost avoidance.
The solution
To take control, the LaaS team centralized chargeback and transportation data within the e2open TMS. The solution required improvements in two phases of the manufacturer’s logistics strategy:
Data: creating a single, trusted view that blended retailer chargeback files with ERP and TMS data
Reporting: automated reporting that enabled faster, self‑serve analysis
With execution and penalties in one place, teams could clearly see which lanes and carriers were driving late deliveries, which gave them the transparency to address issues before fines escalated. By embedding insights directly into day‑to‑day transportation management, the LaaS team transformed chargeback management from an after‑the‑fact exercise into an operational discipline.
The outcome
With clearer, faster insights, performance improved quickly. Across priority lanes, the manufacturer significantly reduced late deliveries and avoided substantial retailer penalties. Reporting cycles shrank from hours to minutes, making ongoing monitoring part of the normal operating rhythm rather than a side quest.
Most importantly, connecting chargebacks to execution data empowered teams to focus on the fixes that mattered most, such as improving on‑time delivery, reducing manual effort, and scaling the approach across additional retail partners.
Why it matters
For food and beverage manufacturers facing growing retailer compliance pressure, e2open Logistics as a Service provides a practical way to regain control over on-time performance and transportation spend. By combining managed transportation services with e2open's proven TMS, LaaS delivers visibility, accountability, and measurable performance improvement without sacrificing control.
Download our case study to learn more about how e2open LaaS helps manufacturers reduce retailer fines, modernize reporting, and improve on‑time delivery.
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