Brands
Background
Brand Collective had recently secured the Reebok brand from the Adidas group and had sold in two seasons using legacy systems comprising printed selling tools such as importable order forms, catalogues and looks books. The preparation of these tools was drawing deeply on limited in house resources and also impacting the operational efficiencies in launching collections and collating orders, in essence impeding the brands growth.
“The Reebok brand was a newcomer to the Brand Collective stable” advised Staurt Conlan, Head of Reebok Wholesale, “and still beholden to legacy systems which was impeding growth potential. It was becoming increasingly obvious that the “new” Reebok needed something far more dynamic and user-friendly for our Retailers to Agents to really capitalise on the brand’s potential”.
“Our business model is heavily oriented towards pre-booking”, outlines National Sales Manager, Stuart Wright, “and the corporate ERP module we had access to did not provide the functionality to cater for the nuances this type of selling demanded. It’s a very visual and collaborative process between our internal and external sales team and our Retail partners. We also wanted to adopt a more sustainable wholesale model and divert the need for traditional sampling and cataloging to something more digital. We began the due diligence process to find a suitable vehicle and Brandscope emerged a solid contender based on market feedback and review of alternate options, both domestically and internationally.”
Solution
The Brand Collective parent company, PAS Group, had already implemented the Brandscope platform across the entire brand stable with a full integration into the companies AP21 ERP system, so had already experienced considerable operational efficiencies for both pre-book and refill selling. This established and proven technical structure offered an opportunity for Reebok to quickly migrate across and launch the next seasonal collection.
“We were in an enviable position,” said Stuart, “in that there was a myriad of real market case studies that we could review, proving Brandscope’s capacity to both launch and maintain fast growing brand’s across a diverse independent retail base. It was literally a ‘plug and play’ situation where we folded into the systems that the PAS Group already had in place”.
The pre-existing processes allowed Reebok to quickly load and launch the Apparel and Footwear pre-book collections for Second Summer 2024 to over 180 independent Retailers.
Outcome
The improvements in operational efficiencies in order receipt and processing were the obvious impacts, with orders flowing directly into the AP21 ERP, thereby eliminating order forms and the inevitable complications around importation.
“Everything was just so much more streamlined, easy and accurate,” recounted Stuart, “which made the entire pre-book process faster from an administrative perspective. Our team works on very tight timelines and we saved about two weeks across an eight week period which gave us more time to analyse orders and place early manufacturing PO’s. I’m sure we’ll see an improvement in our inventory holding as a result.”
The system was also quickly adopted by Reebok’s independent sales team who found the platform considerably more intuitive than the legacy system, allowing them to collaborate efficiently with Retailer customers.
“Our Retailers also found the platform very easy to use, which meant that we could gravitate away from legacy systems with minimal push-back and energise the pre-book process even more,” said Stuart. “Now that our Retail partners have used the system for pre-book and enjoyed the experience, we’re in a strong position to launch in-season collections”.
The stronger connection that Reebok now has with their Retailers and Agents will backbone the launch of injection collections into the market to drive newness and further fuel the brand’s increasing popularity.
“Immediacy is the key for Reeboks current profile,” shared Stuart, “and we’re in a very good position to consistently offer customers new injections off the back of high performers and capture a high volume of orders quickly and in a more streamlined manner. There’s a great deal of upside in adopting the Brandscope platform for pre-book and refill.”
Testimonial
“The Brandscope B2B e-commerce platform has been instrumental in stimulating and managing Reebok’s growth potential in the independent wholesale marketplace. It’s delivered considerable operational efficiencies, was a streamlined rollout and has been embraced by our Retailer and Agent partners as an intuitive and effective sales and marketing tool.”
