Problem
A Direct Sales company selling health food, supplements and beauty aids operated with a single fulfillment location in the Central US. As sales grew, the company was unable to keep up the levels of fulfillment accuracy and service that end users had come to expect.
In addition, freight costs were becoming an issue as customer expansion increased the percentage of higher-priced freight zones being served.
Solution
Amware and the customer determined that a three-warehouse distribution network would be optimal. Amware made critical technical configurations to the warehouse management system to allow orders to be parsed out by location.
Delivery option choices were hard coded into the transportation side and special backorder functionality was added that enabled shipping from an alternate warehouse if the prime warehouse was out of stock. This reduced the potential for backorders.
Result
The company’s order volume went from 40,000 orders/month to over 400,000 orders/month in just three years. This sales spike was managed without any operational issues.
Order accuracy has improved to 99.9% and average freight cost/order has been reduced significantly.
