Vertical
Action Sports
Software Integrated
Shopify, Shipster
Region
United Kingdom
Company Size
Established Retailer
SkateHut, a leading independent retailer of action sports equipment in the UK, turned to Descartes Peoplevox to address operational challenges arising from rapid growth. The company’s existing manual processes, including paper-based picking and manual shipping, were struggling to keep up with increasing order volumes, leading to a decline in customer satisfaction.
Warehouse Challenges Faced by SkateHut
The Top 3 Warehouse Challenges that SkateHut faced before implementing Descartes Peoplevox.
- Overselling: Their manual systems had no real-time inventory tracking, resulting in frequent overselling, cancelled orders and disappointed customers.
- Mis-picking: Lack of barcode scanning and a heavy reliance on staff product knowledge led to a high percentage of picking errors. This required additional staff to rectify mistakes, further increasing operational costs.
- Stock Inaccuracy: The absence of a centralized system to track stock movement resulted in inaccurate inventory records, hindering effective stock management.
These challenges became particularly acute during peak seasons like Black Friday and Christmas, leading to extended dispatch times and customer service issues. To maintain their reputation as a customer-centric business and facilitate future growth, SkateHut recognised the need for a robust WMS that could automate processes, improve accuracy, and provide real-time visibility into their warehouse operations.
Solution: Implementing Descartes Peoplevox
After careful consideration, SkateHut chose Descartes Peoplevox, an ecommerce WMS renowned for its ease of use, powerful features, and integration capabilities. The implementation of the WMS had a transformative impact on SkateHut’s warehouse operations.
The Top 3 business benefits that SkateHut enjoyed after implementing Descartes Peoplevox.
- Elimination of Overselling: Real-time inventory synchronization between the WMS and their Blubolt ecommerce platform eliminated the issue of overselling, ensuring that only available stock was displayed to customers.
- Reduced Mis-Picking: Barcode scanning replaced handwritten pick lists, significantly reducing errors and improving picking accuracy. This streamlined the process and reduced reliance on individual team knowledge, making it much easier to train new staff.
- Improved Stock Accuracy: The WMS provided a centralized system for tracking stock movement, leading to more accurate inventory records and better stock management.
“At the heart of everything, it’s about retaining customers… You have to have the right partners and the right technology, and always be looking to improve.”
Jamie Blundell
General Manager
SkateHut
These initial improvements had a direct impact on customer satisfaction, allowing SkateHut to grow in confidence as a brand, with a reliable and efficient service underpinning their reputation.
Long-Term Gains – Delivering value for the foreseeable future.
As SkateHut continued to grow, leveraging Peoplevox became all the more important. Thanks to the ongoing partnership, the team were able to realise further long-term benefits:
- Extended Same-Day Dispatch Cut-Off: The efficiency gains from the WMS allowed SkateHut to extend their same-day dispatch cut-off time from 3 pm to 7 pm, which is an industry-leading offering and truly sets them apart from competitors.
- More Effective Staff Resourcing: The streamlined processes facilitated by the WMS allowed SkateHut to reduce the number of dedicated customer service advisors needed to handle stock-related issues. This freed up staff resources to focus on other areas of customer service.
- True Scalability: Descartes Peoplevox proved to be highly scalable, enabling SkateHut to “flex up” their operations to handle the surge in demand following COVID-19 lockdowns. It also provided the flexibility to manage multiple warehouse locations efficiently, including at one point four off-site storage facilities used to accommodate the increased stock levels.
Results and Conclusion
The partnership between SkateHut and Descartes has resulted in a significant transformation of the company’s warehouse efficiency, leading to:
- Improved Customer Satisfaction: SkateHut now boasts a 5-star rating from over 99% of its customers, reflecting the positive impact of the Descartes Peoplevox WMS on their service quality.
- Increased Efficiency and Productivity: The WMS has streamlined warehouse processes, reducing picking errors and improving overall efficiency. This has led to a faster order processing time and a significant reduction in operational costs.
- Enhanced Scalability and Flexibility: The WMS has empowered SkateHut to “flex up” their operations to meet growing demand, manage multiple warehouse locations effectively, and adapt to changing market conditions.
The successful implementation of the Descartes Peoplevox WMS has provided SkateHut with a rock-solid foundation for current and future growth. It has also helped cement their position as a true leader in the skateboard retail industry.
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