E-commerce Warehouse Management System Case Study
35% Increase in Order Flow for the Largest E-commerce Footwear Brand in India
Footwear Brand Case Study – Highlights
35% Increase in Order Flow
50% decline in Returns
11 M+ Live Inventory Count
2 Mn+ Units Dispatched/Month
2.2 Mn+ SKU Live on Sales Channels
E-commerce Warehouse Management System Case Study for Footwear Brand
Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) represent a major investment in your supply chain and operational efficiency. While it can be difficult to gauge your estimated time to value, the below-mentioned case study for a leading footwear brand company in India, a Unicommerce client, detailing their experience with an e-commerce warehouse management system and the results they achieved after successful WMS implementation.
About India’s Leading Footwear Brand Company
India’s one of the largest men & women footwear brand and manufacturer is based out of North India. The company manufactures almost 1 Lac pairs every day and the revenue exceeds more than 100 MN dollars. Over the last 50 years, the company has made its strong presence in the Indian footwear market with a wide network of 500+ distributors and sells their footwear brand through 50,000+ retail (EBO & MBO) outlets. In order to match consumer expectation, the company has also launched its exclusive online store for each of their brands and also sells them on established online marketplaces – Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Snapdeal and Amazon India.
Challenges Faced by the Footwear Brand
The client has a complex system consisting of a wide network of 500+ distributors and 50,000+ retail outlets. Their goal was to make the system simplified and aligned for all the warehouse inward/outward activities:
- 2 Mn+ Units Dispatched/Month
- 2.2 Mn+ SKU Live On Sales Channels
- 40% Decline In Returns
- 30K+ Inventory Count
Before implementing Uniware WMS, the company’s entire WMS operations was running on a bespoke ERP solution which could not deliver a great experience when it comes to the scalability, usability, and product features required specific to the client’s complex business model. This resulted in several operational challenges, such as:
- Lack of real time inventory visibility across all distribution centers, leading to lot of data mismatch and inaccuracy in inventory levels
- Lack of transparency of complete order lifecycle (Pick, Pack, Ship etc.) across all distribution centers, due to no automated order status sync
- On top of it, the existing solution was not able to handle E-commerce focused warehouse management operations which require online sales channel & shipping partner configurations
- Lack of automated solution to take care of comprehensive inbound and outbound warehouse operations leading to issues in daily operations
This was the time 2 years ago, when the client, in order to bring more automation, efficiency in inbound & outbound operations, inventory level accuracy and handle complex return process on ecommerce orders, started looking for a robust, cost effective, scalable and easy to use warehouse management solution for its multiple facilities – Both National distribution center as well as regional distribution centers.
Solutions Offered to the Footwear Brand
The company has noticed an exponential growth in ecommerce sales and wanted to improve their B2C fulfillment operations through a tested and proven technology. After spending a good time in evaluating multiple products in the market across various business parameters (scalability, cost, ease of use etc.), they zeroed in and selected Uniware, an Advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS) on SaaS platform for one of its regional facilities. The solution had matched critical business parameters like –
- Mature & Stable solution making the system more reliable and cost effective, with reduced cost of operation and logistics
- Integration with leading online sales channels and logistic partners have boosted and simplified the order fulfilment processes
- Comprehensive support of inbound and outbound warehouse processes through advanced features like cycle count, FIFO, handheld support etc
- Complete data visibility across both the HQ and regional centers about key metrics, through a completely automated system helping them manage their day to day operations
- Easy & quick to set up (complete setup done in 15-20 days) without disturbing the on-going fulfilment operations
- Centralised order and inventory management system resulting in reduced manual effort, giving the client time to strategise and focus more on brand building.
Impact on the Footwear Brand Business
After the successful launch of Uniware WMS, the leading manufacturer started seeing positive results – fully automated processes, lower manpower requirement, increased order flow etc. leading to a satisfied customer who has been using the solution effectively for 2+ years.
- Automated system resulting in smooth fulfilment operations at ground level & cost reduction in P&L and balance sheet
- Easy monitoring of the remote facilities and ability to generate MIS required for business plans & operations
- Managing increased order flow with same manpower (35% increase in facility level) leading to higher profitability
- Effective returns management to significantly improve returns reconciliation (more than 50% benefit)
Getting your WMS right and making sure it’s integrated properly across your supply chain technology stack is critical to realizing quick ROI and improved operational efficiencies.
Unicommerce has completed thousands of WMS implementation projects in its more than a decade of experience, and our vendor-agnostic approach to consulting and implementation ensures you get objective help for your most critical projects. We’re passionate about supply chains and delivering solutions that are the right fit for our clients and would love to help you optimize your supply chain.
If you have a WMS project on the horizon or want to learn more about how we can help you, let’s have a conversation.