Wickes: Removing delivery paperwork and reducing bottlenecks
The Challenge
Wickes is well known in the DIY industry and first opened it’s doors in 1972, growing to a portfolio of over 190 stores today. The eCommerce despatch process used prior to MetaPack was time consuming and laborious, causing a drain on productivity and resources. Paperwork had to be completed manually, leading to higher a risk of human error, and there was also no way of efficiently storing historical consignment data. The choice of carrier was also made manually, based on the type of product being shipped. This often led to a packing bench bottleneck at one or more of the carrier systems, again encroaching on valuable time. Working with designated carrier systems also meant that Wickes were tied to a particular carrier, making it harder to move away if service was poor.
The Solution
After moving to a consolidated warehouse, MetaPack was implemented across the operation. The implementation was smooth, and the warehouse staff found the system very easy to use, noticing a number of benefits immediately. Using an import file from Venda (their eCommerce platform provider), the consignment data is created electronically and automatically populated in the MetaPack system. All paperwork was removed. There is also access to all despatch data in one location and no more bottlenecks nor delays in despatching the goods.
Wickes are also taking advantage of some of MetaPack’s additional functionality: consumer email updates and consignment cloning, which have both proven to be a significant benefit to them. Different warehouses within Wickes are set up with their own carriers, and they are able to see the manifest building throughout the day. Their carriers can then plan the resources required for the collection.
Ever seeking improvement, Wickes are eager to make full use of the other advantages MetaPack can offer them and are currently looking at expanding their delivery options as this will increase their customer base, and reduce shopping cart abandonment. Additional carriers and delivery options are easily incorporated into the system, ensuring that they have a contingency plan should carriers strike or cease trading. Wickes are also planning to move forward with MetaPack’s Direct from Supplier and Returns functions which will enable them to offer a wider range of stock and the ability to track and manage returns whatever channel they occur through.
"MetaPack has alleviated a lot of time constraints and has allowed us to use our resources a lot more productively. Being able to access all carriers through one simple easy to use interface has streamlined our despatch completely. The reporting functions have proved extremely helpful to us when monitoring despatch, particularly the weekly despatch report. We’ve really noticed a massive benefit having MetaPack on board.”
Dean Heatlie
Operations General Manager
