Fashion & Apparel, Luxury
Shopify, Shopify POS, Microsoft Dynamics
Order Management, App Development
Hours Saved/Year
Adoption rate of the OMS
It starts with a black leather jacket. A timeless symbol of non-conformity and the foundation of RUDSAK. Since its founding in 1994 the brand has earned a reputation for exceptional outerwear. With stores across Canada and the prestigious Hudson Yards location in New York, RUDSAK is staking its claim in the luxury market.
Outerwear, in its very nature, is a business that relies on seasonality. Often it’s the case that styles in store are no longer in stock in the warehouse. RUDSAK made their full product catalogue available online, allowing customers to snap up the last remaining pieces of their coveted goods.
Managing this for a few stores is easy. But managing this process for 23 stores and millions of dollars in orders is a headache. A problem that Evan Stanfield, Manager of eCommerce Operations knew well.
“Orders were taking forever to get filled, and by the time they made it to the store, the item was often out of stock. Then we'd have to start the process all over again, which took even more time. It was a snowball effect that just kept getting worse. We knew we needed a better way to manage orders because the old way was just unsustainable.”
Rudsak's retail operations often require inventory to move quickly from distribution centre to retail locations to meet rapidly evolving allocation and marketing needs. As a result, 40% of RUDSAK’s product catalogue is in stores, meaning when online orders are placed, the order often needs to be split and routed between stores and the warehouse. Several employees from RUDSAK’s head office were pulled away from their duties to track orders with emails, phone calls and spreadsheets with tens-of-thousands of lines. It could take up to a week just to organize and communicate order information to the store.
The problem was compounded at the store level. Inventory would be set aside causing reconciliation issues and delays in shipments. The lack of traceability created a serious chokepoint in RUDSAK's business. During peak periods, it could take up to 5 weeks for an order to be shipped.
This was creating a less-than-ideal customer experience. And the situation was getting worse. With Black Friday/Cyber Monday and the holiday season approaching, RUDSAK needed an elegant and streamlined solution to manage this process.
Having previously worked on the Magento-to-Shopify migration, Microsoft AX integration, and a site redesign with multilingual capabilities, Diff was intimately familiar with RUDSAK’s business. Diff was exposed to RUDSAK’s pain points managing their omnichannel orders and proposed building an order management system.
The new Order Management System features:
A portal was exposed in the OMS, allowing store employees to:
Every event in the OMS, whether performed by the system or by a user, updates Microsoft AX’s awareness of inventory in real time. The OMS is resolving inventory issues and stabilizing the operation.
RUDSAK's omnichannel experience allows customers to shop from a product catalog that spans both the warehouse and stores, providing a seamless shopping experience.
As RUDSAK aimed to provide a smooth omnichannel experience, employees at headquarters who were previously performing stretch functions to support this initiative can now focus on their primary tasks and goals. This has led to a reduction in the backlog of tens of thousands of orders by eliminating manual processes.
At the store level, the Order Management System (OMS) has been instrumental in improving efficiency. Every retail employee at RUDSAK's 23 stores, with an average of 10 employees per store, now uses the OMS to manage orders efficiently. There was an immediate reduction in the number of delayed orders. 53% less YOY in the first few months, and it’s still improving.
Overall, the implementation of the OMS has had the most significant impact at the store level, streamlining RUDSAK's operations and providing a better customer experience.
“It’s hard to believe how much things have improved since launch. The OMS totally changed the way orders are managed at store level. I don’t think we could have made it through BFCM without it. Hundreds of associates and managers have adopted the tool and use it on a daily basis. This transforms our customer experience and frees up time to work on strategic initiatives like growing in the US market.”
Evan Stanfield
Manager of eCommerce Operations
