The JOELLE Collection is a range of accessible designer clothing and accessories for women, available via an online storefront and two boutiques. To keep pace with growing demand for its fashion line, JOELLE deployed the combined solution of Descartes Peoplevox™ ecommerce warehouse management system (WMS) and Descartes ShipRush™ multi-carrier ecommerce parcel shipping solution to increase fulfillment capacity threefold, strengthen inventory control and create a frictionless customer experience. 

As the popularity of the JOELLE Collection grew, the company’s pick-pack-ship process was unable to keep pace with increasing order volume and inventory levels, negatively impacting order accuracy, shipping efficiency and business growth. Plus, due to an inability to synchronize its Shopify commerce platform with its inventory system, JOELLE risked overselling; online customers were unable to see up-to-date inventory levels for the items they were ordering. Having outgrown its legacy system, the retailer needed to automate more of its inbound processes to improve inventory management and increase order fulfillment capacity, speed and scalability. 

“The Descartes solution accelerated and expanded our fulfillment capabilities, enabling us to ship three times more parcels every day—with the same number of employees and without worrying about order accuracy. Rollout was smooth and we’ve been extremely impressed with the support and service we’ve received from Descartes after going live.” 

Isabelle Courchesne, Director of Operations, JOELLE Inc. 

Established in 2016, JOELLE is on a mission to break the rules of fashion by putting women at the heart of clothing design. The JOELLE Collection is smart, accessible women’s clothing, accessories, and jewelry offered through a thriving ecommerce business and two retail boutiques in Quebec, Canada. 

Inspired by the success of another Descartes Peoplevox™ customer in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) apparel industry, JOELLE replaced its outdated legacy system with the cloud-based Descartes Peoplevox ecommerce warehouse management solution (WMS) and Descartes ShipRush™ multi-carrier ecommerce parcel shipping solution to manage its rapidly expanding sales growth. The combined solution was up-and-running in three months, streamlining and expediting the pick-pack-dispatch process, increasing order accuracy, and providing real-time visibility into inventory and the shipping journey to enhance the customer experience.   

“Using barcode scanners on the warehouse floor to manage our fulfillment workflow, we can ship more orders while reducing the risk of errors. And because the Descartes solution integrates seamlessly with Shopify to give us granular visibility into inventory levels, we enjoy peace of mind knowing the stock numbers between our storefront and warehouse operations are always in sync,” said Isabelle Courchesne, Director of Operations at JOELLE. “Plus, we’re able to receive additional inventory in real time to help us get more orders out the door, faster.”  

The Descartes ecommerce WMS helped JOELLE triple its order output, scaling easily to manage rapid growth and peak season surges, while helping the retailer understand the performance of its warehouse (e.g., number of orders processed daily) and teams (e.g., picker productivity) to make data-driven operational decisions. JOELLE’s returns process has also improved – Descartes partners with returns management system Loop Returns, which JOELLE also use in their tech stack, to improve the customer return process. Peoplevox is able to receive returned items into the warehouse, having been informed by an RMA generated by the customer in the Loop returns portal.

JOELLE added Descartes ShipRush, a widely integrated multi-carrier shipping platform available, to its warehouse tech stack using the native integration between the two platforms. With advanced automation capabilities, a powerful business rule engine, and a strong set of rating, shipping and tracking APIs, the automated shipping solution helped the retailer ship three times more orders without hiring additional staff. JOELLE is also able to connect to its carriers of choice, using its own negotiated rates or rate discounts available through the platform, to offer customers the best shipping option depending on their delivery preferences. 

“When orders are dispatched in Descartes Peoplevox, shipping labels are automatically generated in Descartes ShipRush—a seamless process that cuts down on the overall time and resources required to process an order,” said Courchesne. “The combined solution simplifies and optimizes our pick-pack-ship workflow, prioritizing time-sensitive orders while minimizing shipping costs by identifying an optimal combination of carrier and service level.”  

She added, “Most importantly, our customers are happy because they receive the right order, on schedule, and they can track order status from the click of the online order to the package landing on their doorstep.” 

By equipping the warehouse team with barcode scanners to automate and accelerate the pick-pack-ship workflow, JOELLE tripled fulfillment volume using the same number of warehouse workers. Descartes’ data-driven reporting capabilities help JOELLE optimize warehouse performance. 

Sales, dispatch, inventory, product and returns data pass seamlessly between Descartes Peoplevox and Shopify via API integration. With real-time inventory visibility, JOELLE can ensure stock available in the warehouse is represented accurately on the website to avoid overselling.  

Validating orders with barcode scanning dramatically reduces mispicks and eliminates costly errors. Shopify integration ensures warehouse inventory and stock reflected on JOELLE’s web storefront are synchronized in real-time. 

With the combined Descartes solution, JOELLE can deliver on the promise to customers to fulfill their order accurately and on time, creating a frictionless customer experience that builds brand loyalty and drives repeat sales.