[Updated post from May 20th, 2021]
Being a brand in today’s retail landscape is a challenging undertaking. Competition for consumers’ attention is intense, acquisition costs are climbing, and expectations for flawless shopping journeys have never been higher.
In the context of logistics, this climate demands means fast, error-free, and value-added fulfillment – every time.
The shipping and delivery experience plays a pivotal role in driving customer satisfaction and loyalty. When the package finally lands on their doorstep, you want your customer to already be planning their next purchase with you.
How do you achieve this? By partnering with a best-in-class 3PL like Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash. Let’s dive into how and why emerging and established brands alike chose to make the switch to our service – and why they’ve stayed put!
“Before partnering with Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash there were some services we weren’t able to offer, such as in-store returns. This added a lot of friction to the customer experience. Integrated inventory management has been a real game-changer for the Calzedonia brand – and our ability to meet consumer expectations.” Marcello Veronesi, CEO of Calzedonia USA.
Consumers are continuing to enjoy the increased flexibility that the COVID-19 pandemic pushed retailers to invest in, and they expect this to stay over in long term; 50% of customers expect a Buy Online, Pick-up In-Store option to be available at their chosen retailer, while 40% want to be able to return items in-store rather than by mail.
For Italian legwear and swimwear brand Calzedonia, these expectations created a challenge for customer experience management. With the pandemic starting just as their ambitious U.S. expansion plan was underway, finding an experienced omnichannel fulfillment provider became a top priority.
With the help of the Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash technology platform, Calzedonia was able to consolidate its inventory across e-commerce and brick and mortar locations. This gave them the ability to offer advanced O2O (online-to-offline) experiences to their customers that had previously been out of reach, such as in-store returns.
Calzedonia is currently operating out of the Newark location, a 32,000 sq. ft. automated distribution center serving almost 50 stores across the U.S., with plans to scale to additional fulfillment locations to serve their growing store network.
Read on for more about Calzedonia’s seamless O2O strategy.
“We love what we do, and we’ve always had a long view for Baboon to the Moon and the people we work with. Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash has added value at every stage of our adventure.” Andy Person, CEO of Baboon To The Moon.
For D2C merchants and traditional retailers alike, seamless integration with e-commerce platforms and ERPs is essential to maintain a continuous flow of data on orders, inventory, shipments, and returns.
Without seamless integrations, information needs to be manually transferred across systems. This is no small undertaking when updates are flying in every minute, leaving your business a step behind and unable to respond effectively to events like shipping delays or low inventory levels. It also opens the door to inaccurate on-site information and errors in data entry, both of which are detrimental to your fulfillment operation.
As a Shopify merchant, travel accessories brand Baboon to the Moon knew that a purpose-built Shopify integration was the number one priority when looking at prospective 3PL partners. Ryder E-commerce’s native Shopify integration, as well as its scalable approach to value-added services, made them the stand-out choice.
With Ryder E-commerce’s easy two-step integration process and automatic importing of new Shopify orders, Baboon to the Moon was able to hit the ground running, achieving 4x year-on-year growth within their first twelve months with Whiplash.
Learn more about the success of Baboon to the Moon here.
“Whiplash has been the ultimate trump card for Moda Operandi. By setting custom Order Rules for packing and routing, we can make sure that our most valued customers receive the service they expect – every time.” Nikhil Soares, ecommerce Supply Chain and Operations Executive for Moda Operandi.
The e-commerce experience has never been more integral to a merchant’s success. Transaction-driven touchpoints that lack the ‘wow factor’ will mean that a brand struggles to meet customer demands for memorable customer experiences.
As an online-only seller of luxury fashion and couture, Moda Operandi had to find ways to deliver white glove delivery experiences without the trappings of boutiques and ateliers. This means that the entire end-to-end experience from ordering and delivery must surprise and delight customers at every turn.
Ryder E-commerce’s intuitive order management platform made it possible for Moda Operandi to set detailed Order Rules for packing and routing. The ability to set specialized packaging for certain SKUs or automatic shipping upgrades for high-value orders enables Moda to offer exclusive perks to their most loyal customers – no ongoing maintenance required.
Paired with the strategic location of Whiplash’s Secaucus facility for same-day delivery to New York City, Moda Operandi is well-positioned to meet customer expectations for seamless delivery.
Find out more about Moda Operandi’s journey with Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash here.
“The Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash platform offered us this unique interface where we could see what was happening in the warehouse in real-time. It made us really comfortable to make the switch because we knew that we didn’t need to be close by to monitor what was happening.” Eric Girouard, Founder and CEO of Brunt Workwear.
Launching a brand-new e-commerce brand is always a daunting prospect, especially when you don’t have a brick and mortar store to fall back on. The brand experience rests entirely on the quality of the online shopping journey – including shipping and fulfillment.
Brunt Workwear was founded on the premise that buying long-lasting workboots should be easy and accessible for tradespeople. This meant that finding a 3PL provider who could scale seamlessly alongside their emerging brand was vital to deliver boots as soon as customers needed them.
Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash offered Brunt a smooth onboarding process that had the brand ready to launch in September 2020. Their launch saw the first batch of orders leaving the warehouse within 24 hours of being placed, with shipments reaching customers across the U.S. in as little as 48 hours.
Hear more about Brunt Workwear and how Ryder E-commerce coordinated a friction-free launch.
“As the demand and interest for e-bikes surged, we needed the ability to scale quickly. With a Seattle presence and a nationwide operation, Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash was a clear choice for a fulfillment partner that allows us to deliver an unrivaled customer experience.” Mike McBreen, Chief Operating Officer at Rad Power Bikes.
For D2C brands, major growth opportunities can be difficult to predict. That’s why it’s important to partner with a fulfillment provider who can match rapid increases in order volume with the right infrastructure and expertise to get them out the door.
The pivot to e-commerce caused by the COVID-19 pandemic saw many digitally-native retailers grapple with a massive increase in demand for their products. RAD Power Bikes was no exception. The closure of gyms and fitness centers nationwide drove consumers to search for alternative exercise solutions, which led to e-bikes becoming a hot commodity virtually overnight.
A multi-node fulfillment strategy gives brands much more flexibility over how they allocate inventory and route orders, helping to achieve faster delivery and more cost-effective shipping to their end customer. This is why RAD chose to partner with Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash and take advantage of their nationwide fulfillment network, enabling them to support future growth through built-in scalability.
Read more about RAD’s decentralized fulfillment strategy here.
“Fulfillment is the third biggest spend at our organization behind advertising and product, so it’s essential that our 3PL partnership continues to deliver value. Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash allowed us to make dynamic business decisions on a day-to-day basis according to the trends we were seeing. Many 3PLs put the guardrails up to prevent brands from innovating, but Whiplash supported us from the very beginning. They’re a partner who says yes, rather than no.” Scott Dulany, Chief Operations Officer at Mugsy.
In the world of hyper-competitive e-commerce, every brand wants to deliver the perfect order. But this isn’t as straightforward as one might think. Slow picking, Shipping delays, and failed deliveries all affect the quality of the post-purchase experience.
After experiencing a less-than-optimal 3PL partnership, denim retailer Mugsy was determined to find a provider whose order fulfillment workflow performed highly according to four key metrics; transparency, customization, reliability, and cost. When industry recommendations kept leading them back to Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash, Mugsy was confident they had found the right partner to achieve maximum flexibility and accuracy.
The week after Mugsy went online in the Columbus, Ohio facility, 99.5% of Mugsy customers reported that they were satisfied with their order and delivery experience, ensuring that customer loyalty stays intact.
Find out more about Mugsy’s journey to error-free fulfillment.
“A great yardstick for measuring the success of an integration is how often you need to get involved in troubleshooting a problem. We recently had a minor issue crop up with the Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash/Loop integration. The two technical teams got in touch and had it resolved within just 48 hours. Not only does this integration minimize admin for our customers, it achieves the same for us as well.” Steven Feczko, Senior Director of Operations at Hedley & Bennett.
Reverse logistics is often a forgotten part of the e-commerce fulfillment process. Why? Because brands don’t enjoy returns when they happen. But as customer satisfaction in e-commerce becomes increasingly linked to positive returns experiences, merchants must invest in this post-purchase stage.
But achieving seamless returns is challenging without the right technology to back you up. In addition to efficiently receiving, processing, and reconditioning returned merchandise, the customer-facing returns workflow needs to be seamless and easy to navigate to meet expectations.
For Hedley & Bennett, a streamlined, end-to-end fulfillment workflow was becoming essential as the textiles and apparel brand underwent rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sending returned items to their head office to be manually processed was time-intensive and inefficient, costing them valuable opportunities for resale.
By partnering with Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash, Hedley & Bennett gained access to integration partner Loop Returns, who enabled a self-service returns workflow that frees up their customer support team and funnels returned items directly to their Ryder E-commerce facility for faster processing.
Learn about how Loop and Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash achieved rapid, responsive e-commerce fulfillment for Hedley & Bennett.
“Over the course of our time together, we’ve fine-tuned on both the Stance side and Ryder E-Commerce by Whiplash side how we execute and plan with each other. This relationship has helped us find synergy and ultimately streamline our fulfillment,” Alex Albert, Vice President of Operations at Stance Socks.
Today’s e-commerce customers expect to be at the very center of the shopping journey – no matter whether it takes place online or offline. Social media, e-commerce, and physical stores must work together seamlessly to create a convenient shopping experience that encourages repeat purchasing behavior.
This is why Stance Socks put a high priority on partnering with a 3PL that could help them pioneer a truly omnichannel approach to retail. Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash helped Stance to elevate its existing fulfillment strategy by scaling labor and order processing capacity in tandem with the peaks and troughs of the promotional cycle, making it possible to manage peak sales periods like Cyber Week with minimal delays.
Read on about how Ryder E-commerce by Whiplash helped transform Stance Socks into a true omnichannel retailer.
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