Helping SkateHut to Improve Warehouse Efficiency, for Good

Started as a small family-run sporting goods business in 2007, SkateHut had seen tremendous growth that now has them operating two brick-and-mortar locations, three warehouses, and over 20,000 SKUs.

This incredible growth has increased the pressure on the brand’s warehouse operations. Previously relying on manual order fulfillment processes, SkateHut was unable to meet steadily rising demand. This meant inadequate order fulfillment and a negative impact on the brand’s ability to provide excellent customer service.

The SkateHut team knew that their warehouse could be running more efficiently and that their staff could be better supporter. So, they began looking for a solution that would eliminate warehouse chaos and offer them the workflows that they needed.

“The most positive impact the Descartes Peoplevox WMS has had on our business is the fact that we have been able to scale to where we are and will be able to keep growing without the need to change.”

Jamie Sippitts Warehouse Manager, SkateHut

Company Profile SkateHut Sporting Goods

Descartes Solution Descartes Peoplevox™

About the Client SkateHut started as a family-run business in 2007, after the founder saw the potential of introducing Heelys to the UK market while on holiday in Florida. A decade later and they have two physical stores, three warehouses and over 20,000 SKUs.

Quick Overview

Challenge Inadequate existing fulfillment processes, inaccurate pick and pack methods, and inefficient warehouse workflows

Solution A WMS solution tailored for ecommerce that will help fulfill more products in higher volume more quickly with enhanced accuracy.

Results – Best-in-class warehouse efficiency – Increased customer satisfaction – Evolving workflows – Seamless integration

R E A D T H E F U L L S T O R Y

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY | SkateHut

Challenge: Fulfillment Suffering From Inadequate Processes SkateHut’s manual picking and dispatch methods, as well as their reliance on paper for picking and making separate courier orders, resulted in overselling, mispicking and constantly dealing with inaccurate stock figures. On top of this, the warehouse staff were wasting a lot of time with current inefficient processes.

These problems with their service levels had a compounding effect on the end-to-end customer experience, as well as their bottom line. To manage these challenges, they were forced to buy in additional stock for when items were oversold. They also had to hire Customer Service Advisors purely for the purpose of telling customers that the items they had ordered weren’t actually in stock. Their warehousing issues were causing the business to take a real hit.

Solution: A Tailored Ecommerce Solution to Improve Workflow Understanding that their paper-based warehouse operations were not sustainable, SkateHut decided to utilize Descartes Peoplevox™ to enable a focused workflow that would address their biggest issues. Specifically designed to handle warehouse management for ecommerce order fulfillment, the Descartes Peoplevox solution offered all the functionality that the multi- channel retailer required.

After discussing which features would deliver the best initial improvements and laying out a roadmap for future development, SkateHut worked closely with Peoplevox’s remote implementation team get their new warehouse management system (WMS) live to quickly and seamlessly. After 12 weeks of implementing, integrating, and training, the SkateHut team now had the robust and tailored solution they needed to take full control of their order fulfillment.

After implementation, SkateHut has seen both immediate and long-term benefits from its new paperless WMS. “Peoplevox helped us gain total stock visibility and restored calm in our warehouse” said Jamie Sippitts, Warehouse Manager at SkateHut. These improved warehouse and fulfillment processes have dramatically affected customer satisfaction and their service is now rated as 5 stars by 99% of their customers.

Beyond the immediate, SkateHut also has realized long-term benefits from their WMS solution. Peak season shipping used to be a cause for concern. Peoplevox’s scalable solution now allows the brand to meet the increased demand flawlessly.

In an age of massive disruption for pureplay and multichannel e-commerce brands, SkateHut is now set up to weather the storm of change effectively. They have a system that will help them to fulfill more, fulfill quicker and fulfill accurately every time.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY | SkateHut

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Results: Best-In-Class Warehouse Efficiency Pick, pack, and ship workflows eliminated chaos by removing the error-filled process of manually sorting through inventory.

Evolving Workflows The scalable WMS solution by Descartes Peoplevox provides workflows that continue to improve the way that their warehouse is run.

Increased Customer Satisfaction With the advance reporting features and improved workflows, SkateHut no longer has to deal with angry customers with cancelled orders.

Seamless Integration A simplified WMS solution, fully implemented in less than three months, enabled a flawless transition to new systems and processes.