Vertical
Hobbies & Lifestyle
Software Integrated
IRP Commerce, Shipster
Region
UK
Company Size
Scale-up
250% sales increase at Fishing Tackle & Bait Leads to Investment in WMS
Background
David Burleigh bought the business that is now known as Fishing Tackle & Bait just over 10 years ago. In the very early days, it was a brick and mortar retail store with only a small handful of staff. With an eye to modernisation and bringing the business to a broader audience, David took his trade digital with a marketplace strategy on eBay and Amazon, followed by their first ecommerce site, built on Shopify. They gained some impressive initial traction, expanding the team and implementing an all-in-one, multichannel system to manage stock, EPOS and shipping requirements.
Early tech improvements
Managing inventory across retail stores and ecommerce sites can be awkward without the right systems and processes. In the early days, Fishing Tackle & Bait fell foul of trying to pick inventory from the retail store itself. This lead to overselling, inaccurate stock levels, and disappointed customers who had their online order items pinched by an in-store customer! To counteract this and make admin across the retail operation more streamlined, they worked closely with our partner IRP Commerce to develop some high-grade eBay and Amazon integrations that actually allowed them to consolidate all their orders into one platform. This laid the foundation for the next phase of growth.
Massive order volume increase
When COVID hit, Fishing Tackle & Bait saw an incredible sales spike of over 250%. Quite simply, the physical work they had to undertake, alongside some cumbersome and demanding manual processes, meant that their entire fulfilllment operation became overwhelmed. Their lack of scalability was exposed, and it was clear to David that further investments into technology, process, and know-how were needed. Leadership wanted to bring some form of automation into the business and deskill warehouse work. Going into a transformation of this nature, they believed that shipping 100s of orders same-day was a total impossibility, both practically and financially. However, with the massive uptick in sales came both increased customer demands and more cash flow, which was the perfect storm to catalyse the business into action.
Relying on industry expertise to solve the big issues
David and the team contacted their now long-term solution partner IRP Commerce, which had previously integrated Peoplevox into another customer. They were kind enough to recommend our solution to Fishing Tackle & Bait as a “best-in-breed” warehouse management system for ecommerce. Whilst mindful of keeping fixed overheads to a minimum, as a small but growing business, the discovery and evaluation process demonstrated that Peoplevox would be able to address the key problem areas for the warehouse and fulfilllment side of the operation:
- Total stock accuracy was needed between the warehouse, ecommerce website and marketplace channels, to avoid overselling.
- Picking and packing processes had to be made much more efficient to handle the higher volume of orders per day.
- For the busiest times of year, the warehouse tasks needed to be deskilled and easy to learn, allowing new or temporary staff members to start working productively straightaway.
Implementing Peoplevox and onboarding the team at Fishing Tackle & Bait
Some preconceptions about buying a SaaS platform included being left to configure everything yourself with little support. Fortunately, that’s not the Peoplevox way! We took Fishing Tackle & Bait through a comprehensive 12-week, fully remote onboarding, implementation, and training process. It ensured that everyone was confident the platform would work without stress from day one of go-live. David explained: “We were 100% comfortable with the system and how to use it by the time we were ready to go live. This has, without doubt, been the smoothest deployment of a system we have ever achieved as a company. Everyone involved at IRP, Peoplevox, and our staff pulled it off with dedication and resolve!”
Exceptional results at Fishing Tackle & Bait since going live
The business, we are delighted to report, has been ‘blown away’ by the efficiency it has managed to achieve. Before Peoplevox, Fishing Tackle & Bait considered hiring two additional staff to handle the number of orders. However, the new WMS has absorbed this pressure. Moreover, misspicks are almost entirely removed as a possibility from the operation, overselling is no longer an issue, and customer service queries have been reduced by more than 70% on average!
But what was the most impressive thing the team found? They can now push back their cut-off time for next-day delivery, receiving and shipping orders the same day for the first time! It was something that the business had never previously considered possible. Now, with a far greater degree of organisation and control over their warehouse, Fishing Tackle & Bait can offer what is quickly becoming a standard expectation in online retail, allowing them to stay competitive and further delight customers.
“This gives me confidence that we can grow further as a company with the right systems and processes in place, ones that can be scaled at the drop of a hat when required.”
“The implementation process was amazingly focused and meticulous
with Krzysztof really becoming part of our team for the 12 weeks, fully understanding our business, the requirements, and our unique circumstances and challenges. This made me feel like we 100% made the best choice and Peoplevox 100% understood ecommerce fulfilllment.”
David Burleigh
Director
Fishing Tackle & Bait
Customer reviews take positive uplift
David admitted that in the past, before Peoplevox, Fishing Tackle & Bait had struggled to deliver to their customers on a consistent basis, and that the logistics side of the business was letting them down. However, the reviews that are coming in since installing the WMS are incredibly positive about exactly that, the logisitics-powered customer experience.
“We can be proud of our logistics operation for the first time, taking control of our customers’ delivery experiences. This wouldn’t have been possible without Peoplevox. We’re excited for the future of our business in the fast paced ecommerce world.”