Background
Founded in 1984 by brothers Fernando and Santiago Aguerre, REEF was born out of their love for the beach and surfing. Inspired by their active, beach-centric lifestyle, they set out to create high-quality, ultra-comfortable sandals that could seamlessly transition from the beach to the streets. What started as a small project has since evolved into a global brand, and today, REEF sandals represent more than just footwear – they embody the pursuit of the REEF DREAM.
Before partnering with Brandscope, REEF faced several challenges in managing their inventory and reorder processes, which made it difficult to efficiently serve their retail partners. Retailers often struggled with stockouts of popular Reef products, resulting in missed sales opportunities, while other stores overstocked, leading to unsold inventory and dead stock.
The reordering process was complex and time-consuming, requiring retailers to navigate lengthy product catalogs and multiple communication channels, which caused delays and errors in order fulfillment.
In addition, without real-time data and analytics, Reef had difficulty accurately forecasting demand, leading to misaligned inventory levels across different locations.
Sales representatives also found themselves spending a significant amount of time manually managing stock levels and processing orders, leaving little time to focus on building relationships with retail partners.
Solution
Reef strategically integrated Brandscope into their in-house AS/400-based ERP system to streamline the automated flow of orders, inventory, and product status. By uploading product releases and setting up pricing schemes on the platform, Reef immediately provided retailer buyers with access to a comprehensive assortment of wholesale products across various channels. This integration ensured that both sales and retail teams had real-time, 24/7 visibility into available inventory, significantly enhancing efficiency and decision-making.
As part of this integration, Reef implemented Brandscope’s Quickfill feature, which allowed retailers and sales reps to reorder products with just a few clicks, greatly simplifying and speeding up the reordering process. This feature eliminated the need for manual, time-consuming steps and enabled faster, more accurate stock replenishment.
Comprehensive training was also implemented for their sales team, ensuring they were fully equipped to leverage the new system. With this training, sales representatives gained a solid understanding of how to use Brandscope’s features, enabling them to quickly assist retailers.
In addition, Brandscope’s forecasting and analytics tools helped Reef gain deeper insights into purchasing trends, ensuring Reef had the right inventory available at the right time, all the time!
Outcome
Through Brandscope, Reef saw measurable improvements across several key areas. Inventory management became much more efficient, with stockouts and overstock situations significantly reduced. This allowed Reef to ensure that retailer partners were consistently stocked with the right products, minimising lost sales and improving supply chain reliability.
The Quickfill feature played a key role in boosting refill sales. Retailers were able to restock faster, resulting in a 25% increase in refill orders. This contributed to a significant rise in overall sales, with the women’s segment of the business even doubling in sales since joining Brandscope.
The streamlined ordering process also helped strengthen Reef’s relationships with retailers. The intuitive, efficient refill system fostered trust and loyalty, as retailers appreciated the ease of restocking and the consistency of product availability. Sales representatives were able to focus more on pushing key products to retailers, emphasising best sellers and encouraging them to keep these popular items in stock. This not only helped increase sales but also reinforced the strength of the Reef brand.
In addition to these gains, Reef saw a notable increase in profitability and operational efficiency. By reducing manual work and automating many processes, Reef was able to lower operational costs and achieve better alignment between supply and demand, resulting in improved profitability.
By addressing these refill challenges, Brandscope’s Quickfill feature not only improved Reef’s operational efficiency but also enhanced their profitability, bolstering their position in the retail market and strengthening relationships with retail partners.
Tim Barr states “In the footwear game, ensuring that your retail partners can quickly and efficiently refill on your products is absolutely critical to maintain in-store brand presence. Brandscope has introduced a much more collaborative and immediate relationship with our partners for mutual benefit. The platform has helped us get to the next level.”
Testimonial
“Brandscope has helped to optimise administrative processes, simplified order entry, and boosted efficiency throughout our business and sales teams.”
