Surfing Hardware: Managing allocation through their own APIs
The Challenge
Established for three and a half years, Surfinghardware.co.uk was founded as a result of two friends seeing a gap in the market. Based in Cornwall it’s a one-stop specialty shop for surfers that offer an unrivalled choice of brands and products. Surfing Hardware had two main areas of focus. Creating a more efficient and automated delivery process; offering a greater level of tracking to their customers and setting up a labelling system. The existing manual process was having an impact on their resource levels. As a member of the IMRG, Surfing Hardware realised the importance of instilling confidence in their customers and fulfilling expectations for a smooth and reliable on-line sale. It was through the IMRG that they became aware of MetaPack.
The Solution
Owing to their location the integration and go live of the MetaPack Delivery Management Software was all carried out remotely, proving the system’s ease of use and ability to be set up anywhere in the UK. Surfing Hardware wrote to the MetaPack API’s (Application Program Interfaces) which enabled them to efficiently manage their carrier allocation between their three carriers. The goods are allocated based on weight and delivery destination. Hand writing labels are no longer necessary, as labels for each of the carriers are produced from one printer. Once the goods are despatched, a notification email is sent to the customer providing them with a tracking number and a link to the relevant carrier site, thereby reducing the number of inbound calls. The whole despatch process and operational benefits have been realised through the use of a single interface and label printing resource. As business is growing, Surfing Hardware is looking to add more carriers to gain the further efficiencies of using a multi-carrier approach, and will be launching a bigger website at the end of the year, which will also operate with MetaPack.
"We understand the importance of delivery in the online offering and therefore enlisted the services of MetaPack to ensure we got it right. We pride ourselves on offering clear and detailed postage information and despatch all orders within one working day. Having all our despatch information in one system and the ease of allocation (automatically sorting parcels according to weight and location) has made it possible for us to give our customers the first class, speedy service they deserve.”
Nick Gill, Director
Surfing Hardware
