Bluepeak Logistics: Plenty of Demand, Nothing to Buy

Product Management
medium45 min0 submissions
McKinsey
Scenario

Bluepeak Logistics runs a logistics marketplace in Southeast Asia, live in 38 cities.

Last month: 333,357 active buyers, 6,816 active sellers, 463,752 searches, and an overall fill rate of 61%.

That average conceals a wide spread. The three largest cities fill at about 85%. The bottom half of cities fill at around 18%.

Growth marketing has been buying buyer-side installs, because buyer acquisition is cheaper and the install numbers look good in the board deck. Supply acquisition is manual and slow.

Supporting data

scale

searches
463752
active buyers
333357
active sellers
6816
buyer to seller ratio
48.9

liquidity

cities live
38
overall fill rate pct
61
top 3 cities fill pct
85
bottom half cities fill pct
18

acquisition

buyer side
paid, scaling
seller side
manual, flat
Your task

Advise the general manager. Your answer should provide:

  1. Analysis — which side is constrained, where, and what the fill rate really says.
  2. Risks — what happens if you keep acquiring on the current side.
  3. Recommendation — which side, which cities, which mechanism, and the metric that proves it.

State any assumptions you make.

Ready to move forward? Up next: Pallas Pharma: Plenty of Demand, Nothing to BuyNext question
How you'll be graded

80 points, 60% to pass.

  • recommendation15
  • market analysis25
  • risk assessment20
  • financial analysis20
Hint
Reveal suggested structure

Liquidity is local. Find the constrained side per geography, stop acquiring on the long side, and concentrate supply until density crosses the threshold.