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Online sales of home fitness and outdoor leisure exploded in Australia in 2020, resulting in Super Retail Group increasing eCommerce sales by 87 percent to $237 million in the second half of 2020. In an effort to meet this surge in online orders and meet their customer promise around delivery, the company fast-tracked the rollout of a new omni-channel solution with Manhattan Associates in an innovative, socially distanced manner.

Super Retail Group’s previous online order fulfilment system allocated orders based on proximity to customers, without considering the true cost to fulfil. As a result, more than 20 percent of home delivery orders were shipped interstate at a higher cost, despite the company having the items in stock in the state. Additionally, more than 15 percent of home delivery orders were split into multiple packages, which also increased fulfilment costs.

“When COVID-19 fully hit and many businesses were consolidating projects, we actually sped up the deployment of Manhattan Active Omni, and it now offers us a single window of visibility and availability of stock across our entire supply chain network.” explained Brian Townshend, Super Retail Group’s general manager of omni-retail.

“The cloud-based Manhattan Active Omni solution is highly adaptable and responsive. Even implementing it virtually and operating throughout the challenges of COVID-19, the new system has been able to accommodate major order and fulfilment routing changes within minutes. With the new system, we were able to change our fulfilment logic and immediately reduce fulfilment costs – even achieving our 12-month goal on day one, which is a remarkable result,” finished Townshend.

The Manhattan Active Omni Solution is highly responsive and can accommodate major order and fulfilment changes within minutes. This was critical for Super Retail Group when the state of Victoria went into a COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, allowing the company to change its fulfilment logic so that orders that were going to be shipped out of Victoria were stopped and re-allocated to other sites within minutes. The new system also allows Super Retail Group to deploy a ‘site outage’ action for both its DCs and stores, so that if any site is unable to trade (such as due to a positive COVID-19 test or other reasons) the company can quickly close that site and redirect order activity to be fulfilled elsewhere.

“We would like to congratulate Super Retail Group on the great work and results they have achieved during a challenging 2020. We know at this particular time just how important it is for this leading Australasian retailer to be able to get the best local and international brands to its customers as quickly as possible, whether it’s via delivery or click and collect,” added Raghav Sibal, Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand for Manhattan Associates.

“To roll out Manhattan Active Omni virtually during COVID-19 and then immediately see these excellent results is testament to not only the power of our cloud solution, but also the expertise of our team, as well as the strong partnership between the two companies,” ended Sibal. ●•

As Australia’s leading online book retailer, Booktopia dispatches more than 3.3 million parcels annually to its customers across Australia and New Zealand. During peak periods, the online retailer has shipped 41,800 units in a day. Booktopia’s technology decisions are focused entirely on enabling it to efficiently ship a high volume of books from its warehouse to fulfil orders and maintain outstanding customer service.

As Australia’s leading online book retailer, Booktopia needed to uphold its reputation by deploying sophisticated and productive technology at its 13,000 square meter warehouse. When the incumbent, dated Windows CE mobile technology threatened the efficiency of Booktopia’s picking and put away operation, the company needed a solution that would complement its custom warehouse management system (WMS) and give it the flexibility to innovate.

Importantly, Booktopia required a solution that would also improve staff satisfaction, and therefore boost efficiency and productivity of its warehouse operations.

In 2020, Booktopia engaged with Zebra Technologies Corporation, to deploy Zebra’s TC8000 touch mobile computers, an android-based mobile computer with fast scanning capabilities.

“With work shifts stretching up to four consecutive hours per shift, our frontline workers needed mobile computers with a dependable battery life and scanning accuracy,” said Tim Rimington, Infrastructure Manager at Booktopia. “Additionally, we needed mobile computers that were rugged, lightweight, ergonomically-designed and easy to use. We were delighted that Zebra’s mobile computing solution fulfilled these requirements.”

According to Zebra’s Warehousing Vision Study, forward-thinking companies like Booktopia are turning to technology to cope with the growth of the on-demand economy.

“Up to 77 percent of them agree that equipping their workers with technology is the best way to introduce automation in the warehouse”, said Tom Christodoulou, Regional Director of Australia and New Zealand, Zebra Technologies.

Zebra’s TC8000 devices will continue to enable high productivity levels and staff satisfaction across Booktopia’s warehouse operations. By leveraging on Zebra’s TC8000, Booktopia joins the 77 percent of forward-thinking companies that are equipping their workers with technology to achieve better results. They will boost Booktopia’s capacity to process orders in greater volumes and see it remain a market leader in eCommerce.

As an entirely online retailer, Booktopia is reliant on technology for its success, and must stay ahead of the technology curve. The next step for Booktopia is wearable devices. These will produce greater time savings than handheld mobile computers. Booktopia has invested over $20 million dollars in automation solutions across its warehouse, and the company plans to increase investment in the next few years. ●

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