Verge Girl, styled as VRG GRL, is an online Australian women’s fashion brand, on a mission to inspire creativity and confidence through style. Leading from the front, CO-CEO Cale Suesskow spoke with us about the brand’s journey from start-up to international name, and how with remarkable growth came some unexpected challenges.
‘As the business grew, it became more and more obvious we needed some better systems and technology in place, to keep up with growing demand. From the earliest days in the operation, everything we’d done had been very manual – for example we’d have someone copy and pasting addresses and order information out of Shopify and into our parcel accounts, before printing them out and sticking them on packages. It was a lot of hustle, and it definitely became more and more stressful, trying to get all our orders out.’
Creating a calmer warehouse
Cale’s analogy of a busy warehouse to a busy restaurant service is an all-time favorite – he really captures that stressed-out, panicked state a warehouse can be in with huge order volumes and no solid processes to trust in. However, by implementing Descartes Peoplevox, a built-for-fashion WMS, alongside Starshipit, an APAC-focused Carrier Management Solution, the VRG GRL team are a lot more chilled out, as Cale puts it.
‘Everything’s running like a well-oiled machine now, with our fulfillment solution in place. It’s a much better working environment for the team, and when we bring new staff in, instead of it taking weeks to get them up to speed, it’s just a matter of hours before they’re effective, using the barcode scanners and picking orders with Peoplevox.’
More transparency and reducing overselling
Alongside the increase in picking and packing efficiency, Cale’s introduction of a fashion WMS into the business has helped with transparency of stock – they’ve now got a clear picture of when and where goods were moved historically. Furthermore, overselling, a long-standing issue in the past for VRG GRL, has been dramatically reduced, thanks to Peoplevox’s real-time inventory tracking and syncing with the front-end Shopify store.
The final thing that stands out when you’re looking at the best WMS for fashion brands, is having automatic, easy to use connectivity with your carriers. VRG GRL were able to connect Peoplevox with Starshipit for this, allowing them to shop for the best possible rates and apply their automated shipping rules to every package, without having to leave their WMS platform.
“It used to take at least one to two weeks to get someone up to speed. Now they’re out in the warehouse picking and packing within their first hour working for us.”
Cale Suesskow
CEO
VRG GRL
Why is Peoplevox the ‘Go To’ WMS for growing fashion ecommerce brands?
Fast growth brands like VRG GRL need systems and processes that scale with them. It’s no good investing heaps of time and money in a technology implementation, if after 1-2 years the business needs outgrow what that piece of software can support.
True ROI is delivered year after year when a software platform adjusts and grows with the business, whether that’s by enabling more users, more advanced features, or just by handling increasing order volumes.
Descartes Peoplevox was built from its outset to support this kind of business – with one implementation up front, and then ongoing support as brands grow. The base package offers 5 users, and all the functionality needed to manage every process in your warehouse, from goods-in to goods-out. Then, with growth, the system allows for new integrations into tools like Brightpearl or NetSuite, more advanced workflows like Pick and Sort to Trolley, and the option to add users as your warehouse team grows.
What makes Descartes the perfect fashion WMS partner in Australia?
Descartes is a global business that thinks like a local partner. We have people situated across Europe, the US and Australia/New Zealand, and that gives us a unique ability to serve an incredibly diverse customer base with hands-on support. We host local meetups and community events and regularly conduct site visits to warehouses all around the world.
In Australia and New Zealand, we have key strategic partnerships with the most popular, regional businesses like Starshipit, Cin7 and Databot. This means introducing Peoplevox into your existing tech stack as an APAC-based business will come without wider disruption or ripping out and replacing your current providers.
Finally, in the fashion and apparel sector, our customer base covers some of the most recognized businesses in the market, from Princess Polly and Culture Kings to DISSH, Billy J and Showpo. Working with these industry-leading operations has given our team a unique insight into the needs and requirements of a fashion WMS and helped us to develop our product and offering over time to support the apparel sector directly.
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