Background
ThreeByOne was founded by three friends with the shared motivation to create a considered, independent denim brand, passionate about progressive youth culture. Their mission was to develop modern jeans to be worn from dusk till dawn, reflecting their ethos of evolving alongside a changing world while making an impact. Designed for those who embrace life with intensity and resilience, these jeans embody moments where boldness meets creativity, resulting in innovation and inspiration.
As the business expanded, its primary focus shifted towards pre-booking which characterised the nature of the global fashion distribution channel the company sold into. ThreeByOne encountered challenges using the existing system which lacked intuitive flow and functionality to support the nuances of wholesale fashion marketplace… an environment where sales people and retailers collaborated intimately to formulate multi-month indent orders, supported by marketing and an array of category and retailer-oriented promotions.
According to ThreeByOne National Sales Manager, the sales team and retail partners had to rely on a combination of B2B platforms, complex excel spreadsheets and printed catalogues, resulting in a slower process that inhibited the sales outcome and restricted critical brand growth.
The delays in order capture, compounded by the rigid pre-book sales and production lead times, dominoed down the chain impacting the timeliness of deliveries into store and therefore confidence in the brands capacity to supply on time, everytime. ThreeByOne needed a system that could manage multiple monthly product drops of duplicate items, and consolidate the pre-book sales and marketing process onto a single centralised platform that was both intuitive and effective in managing a very important segment of the wholesale business.
Solution
ThreeByOne management initiated a market research process, backboned by sales and retailer partner feedback, to ascertain the most intuitive and effective pre-booking platform globally.
Brandscope became the primary B2B e-commerce platform choice to streamline the pre-booking process and seamlessly integrate into the CIN7 ERP system that Threebyone were using for their resource planning.
The system was selected because it offered a suite of features tailored for pre-book order management and was broadly used in the fashion industry. It also managed digital marketing requirements during and after the sales process, ensuring that retail partners had timely access to a library of assets to support their B2C, POS and social media platforms.
Additionally, it was efficient at managing refills on core lines, as demonstrated by its successful track record with global denim brands like Levis. Features such as Quickfill and stock model orientated Count’n Fill ensured that partners could review available inventory (both now and in the future) and identify best selling, back in stock and marketed items for immediate re-order.
The tool also managed market segmentation and facilitated a high level of collaboration between sales representatives and their retail partners, both crucial components of the pre-booking and refilling process across a broad array of independent retail partners.
The API integration into CIN7 ERP, along with the formulation of market segments, sales territories, pre-book and refill pricing schemas and reporting mechanisms across ThreeByOne’s sophisticated multi-currency and multi-country distribution channel throughout the United States, Australia and New Zealand took ten weeks to complete.
Outcome
Brandscope streamlined the pre-booking process and improved the overall collaboration between ThreeByOne sales representatives and their retail partners. The platform also boosted refill sales on core items and assisted retail partners in sourcing digital marketing and education assets to help sell and market ThreeByOne’s house brands.
The pre-booking was also refined, as highlighted by the National Sales Manager, who summarised that ThreeByOne’s retail partners could confidently leave a product showing, knowing that their selections were fully accounted for and processed for delivery at the required time. This new level of collaboration also minimised the need for back-and-forth communication, saving a significant amount of time and drain on management resources.
The platform introduced a new level of partner engagement that resulted in better penetration across Month>Category>Price>Colour divisions due to the visual nature of the collection presentation process, both in the showroom and on the road. The sales team also had the capacity to review every submitted order in detail before it was pushed through to the CIN7 ERP, ensuring detailed analysis at size and colour level to drive a significantly better end result.
The improved showing experience resulted in an early increase in pre-book orders of over 25% across both men’s and women’s collections on multiple brands.
Orders were also automatically received into the CIN7 ERP system much more quickly than previous years due to the pre-planning and collaborative nature of the updated sales process. Instead of working with printed catalogues, order forms and look books, ThreeByOne was able to digitise the process which enabled everyone to work in a much more timely way with all the sales and marketing tools at their fingertips.
Brandscope’s auto-generated export/import excel order form also facilitated the capture of major Retailer’s orders into the Brandscope system as an unapproved Buy Plan for review, where typically such orders were submitted via the account’s own enterprise ERP and POS system. This ensured that all orders were compiled into a centralised capture tool and analysed for opportunity before being pushed through to the CIN7 ERP as an approved order.
Major accounts also used the Brandscope tool at the beginning of showings to review specific collections and associated suggested assortments from the relevant sales representative, which assisted with focus on key items and final order receipt.
According to ThreeByOne National Sales Manager, the spreadsheet option was an effective way to work with key buyers from large accounts in their preferred format and still secure selections into the Brandscope platform for visual review across colour balance, pricing and best sellers by months.
System engagement has been instrumental in transforming the way that ThreeByOne are operating the indenting component of their business, enhancing their capacity to sell more products in a far more streamlined and economical way. The result has seen a marked reduction in catalogues, a more efficient and effective sales team and a gradual decoupling of the reliance on product samples.
The key highlight has been the engagement of ThreeByOne’s retail partners and sales people collaborating on the platform across the full gamut of release types. The resulting “well oiled indenting machine” removes much of the inefficiencies, inaccuracies and frustrations that historically plagued the product launch and order capture process using a combination of less intuitive tools.
Testimonial
“Our sales team now has commanding control over the pre-booking component of the business, from planning to expediting orders, resulting in a much faster and productive sales process.”
