Challenges

Offering 30,000 product lines, the Halfords website offers a truly comprehensive range to consumers interested in automobiles, leisure, cycling and more. In recent times, the Halfords multichannel strategy has grown in combination with the Halfords store network to provide a compelling array of services to meet changing consumer behaviours as online becomes more and more embedded in everyday life.

Keeping abreast of the needs of the customers as they increasingly move between Halfords stores and the brand’s website remains a key focus. In response to changes in shopping habits, the company wanted to launch a service allowing consumers to order goods online and collect from a local store at no extra delivery cost.

“Metapack truly is a revolutionary concept. It has grown with our operation and has allowed us to offer a wider product range to our customers as well as visibility of all our orders, thus enhancing our customer service.”

Solution

Halfords had previously overhauled its ‘direct from supplier’ process by adopting Metapack’s Supplier Direct solution. Each morning order data is imported from SAP to Metapack with the click of just one button. Each supplier can then log onto Metapack through a web interface to see all of their Halfords orders as pre-allocated consignments. Metapack prints the carrier labels for the supplier and sends collection notices to the appropriate carrier. Both the suppliers’ and Halfords’ customer service teams have full visibility into delivery information. With this process already in place, it was easy for Halfords to add the ‘free delivery to store’ option without any additional implementation, resource or cost requirements.

Results

The Metapack Supplier Direct solution enables a huge level of scalability – Halfords is able to extend its product range without incurring any overheads, expand delivery offers and increase flexibility and visibility when shipping from suppliers. Meanwhile, the introduction of free delivery to stores means that Halfords customers are now able to choose from a wider range of products. Research shows that Halfordfs customers prefer to collect in store so they can take advantage of the wide range of fitting services and demonstrations available. In this way, Halfords’ ‘free delivery to store’ option contributes to increasing in-store sales and retaining customer loyalty.

“The system has allowed us to allocate our time more productively, reduce and manage costs, and provides us with a greater level of flexibility with our delivery options. But most importantly it has given a greater level of visibility, which enables us to continue to provide a consistently high level of customer service.”