Managing inventory across multiple international stores
Retaining this level of exclusivity comes with the added challenge of styles quickly selling out, and a reliance by KOOKAI on having accurate oversight over its inventory.
KOOKAI’s AU, US and UK e-commerce stores currently share a central fulfillment centre and stock file. With turnover so fast-paced, each of the three stores’ stock levels can quickly go out-of-sync, creating a risk of overselling and missed opportunities.
Before Syncio, there was no way to manage this problem without manually restricting the stock available to the stores and online channels. Additional time spent managing inventory, coupled with the opportunity cost of unavailable products to customers, was inhibiting KOOKAI’s online growth and potential.
“We were constantly evaluating sell-through and re-allocating inventory across our stores; which proved to be a time consuming process”, said Libby Spiteri.
Leveraging real-time inventory sync to support expansion
KOOKAI needed a solution that could sync inventory in real-time across its online stores so that inventory movements from each store were updated across all three stores. For example, if an Australian customer buys the last product in the Australian store that has meant that this product was now sold out, this inventory update will sync across to the US and UK stores, updating the product on each of these stores to be sold out.
This solution would be found in partnering with Syncio. Syncio now takes care of all the inventory updates by showing all inventory as available across all locations in real-time. This allows KOOKAI to focus more of its time and efforts on strategic opportunities for the KOOKAI brand as they continue to grow and expand into new markets.
Syncio was also easy to use without a large learning curve to use effectively. Kookai also had the products already populated in all of its stores and needed Syncio to intelligently “map” the existing products so that the inventory was synced without it affecting the specific product information tailored to each location.
Syncio has saved time, increased sales, and freed KOOKAI to focus on growing
Since using Syncio, KOOKAI has saved its team hours of work each week, allowing them to maximise sales potential by having all products available. KOOKAI can now also test and expand into new markets with no risk of impacting inventory availability on its existing stores.
These are core value propositions that have contributed to the success of KOOKAI in its physical stores that it can now replicate online. Libby adds, “Getting the right styles to the right locations and customers is a core part of the way we strive to provide the best service we can”.
Finally, when asked about providing any tips on how to run a successful Ecommerce business, Libby concludes, “Customers are the reason why we exist as a brand, and are at the core of every decision we make. KOOKAI has enjoyed continued success through staying true to the essence and vision of the brand, and fostering a team customer rich with the passion and drive to go from good to great”. Syncio is certainly proud to be contributing to this this success.