Fashion retailer’s supply chain optimised for growth

3 Minute Read

Clothes hanging on racks in a fabric warehouse transportation hub for fashion apparel

The Challenge

Having recently moved to a new 60,000 ft² warehouse, a high-growth e-commerce fashion retailer was rapidly outgrowing its space far sooner than anticipated, due to 30% year-on-year growth.

It needed an immediate and scalable supply chain improvement solution that could accommodate its ambitious five-year growth strategy across different channels and regions, maintain its high service levels, and optimise efficiency.

This relocation had the potential to be highly disruptive, involving high levels of CapEx spend and diverting from the focus of the core business – product development and growth.

The Solution

Unipart was challenged to define a network fulfilment strategy to address these challenges.

Utilising the warehouse management system (WMS) of the retailer’s selected systems partner Descartes, a global powerhouse in cloud-based logistics and supply chain technology solutions, Unipart Consultancy’s team of supply chain experts devised a multi-phased strategy with a focus on:

  • Optimising existing warehouse space: Unipart identified practical changes to product flow, storage, and picking processes, maximising the capacity of the current warehouse and alleviating immediate concerns about peaks in online shopping periods such as Cyber Monday
  • Strategic roadmap for future growth: Unipart developed a flexible, multi-phased roadmap that considered trade-offs between further investment in the existing site and potential relocation, allowing the customer to respond to varying growth rates from a clearly documented and costed supply chain roadmap
  • Agile and responsive WMS: Unipart utilised the customer’s chosen WMS, Descartes’ Peoplevox, providing an agile platform to create and develop bespoke solutions to execute the new fulfilment network strategy, including supporting seasonal off-site picking operations.

4-week

Completion time

The Impact

This project, completed in just 4 weeks, delivered a transformation to the retailer’s growth trajectory, with the following impacts:

  • Resources re-directed towards business expansion, new market exploration, and product innovation
  • Multi-staged investment approach adopted that ensured ROI by focusing on both tactical quick wins and strategic development  
  • Strategic roadmap implemented that provided clarity on when and where to invest in the supply chain, considering various growth scenarios
  • Operational blueprint created for a seasonal relief operation, providing confidence to manage capacity increases in the short term
  • Peak seasons handled without impacting service levels
  • Capital-light, scalable approach to warehouse management applied, enabling adaptation to future growth without major disruptions
  • Operational bottlenecks addressed and flexible solution used to allow prioritisation of core business goals and growth ambitions
  • Significant cost of expanding to new warehouse avoided by optimising existing warehouse space.

The Unipart Consultancy & Descartes partnership

Unipart Consultancy and Descartes are now exploring further opportunities to offer scalable end-to-end supply chain solutions to high growth e-commerce retailers, maximising efficiency in a modular, less-capital intensive manner.

Clothes hanging on racks in a fabric warehouse transportation hub for fashion apparel

Contact us now

Begin a conversation with one of Unipart’s experts to find out how we can transform your supply chain to meet your customer demands

Let's talk