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.”
Background
Since 1962, Havaianas has been a global ambassador of Brazilian culture around the world, celebrated for its iconic rubber sole and vibrant, summer-infused designs. With annual sales exceeding 250 million pairs across more than 100 countries, Havaianas has solidified its status as the essence of modern flip flops, beloved by beachgoers and trendsetters worldwide. From the bustling streets of Brazil to the prestigious galleries of New York’s renowned contemporary art museums, Havaianas stands as a global icon.
Havaianas is characterised by a sophisticated supply model, comprising large stock service lines, multiple indent seasons, diverse pricing mechanisms and an incredibly broad product range with long production lead-times and disjointed seasonality due to the Brazilian manufacturing base. When the Brazilians are starting to wind down, the Aussies are just getting started! With that comes a compressed order-to-supply window and the importance of successfully capturing orders quickly and efficiently during the sales process is paramount.
According to Havaianas General Manager, Tom Nolan, “When I joined Havaianas over eight years ago I was surprised that such a significant brand was relying on spreadsheets to capture such a high volume of orders and then importing those orders back into their SAP ERP with limited analysis. The obvious answer was to implement a refined and automated platform like Brandscope to get more control over the order process and maximise the all sales opportunities across products and supporting point of sale. It didn’t take much to convince the CFO to allocate budget to the tool as it represented an immediate return on investment for both sales and marketing.”
Solution
Havaianas integrated Brandscope into their SAP ERP and uploaded both indent and refill collections onto the platform. This integration streamlined the process by automating the upload of individual retail orders into the SAP environment against the relevant retail partner account. It also automated the update of available inventory at size level for current and future months within Brandscope, ensuring that all sales and retail users had a 24/7 view of all available inventory.
Following the integration, Brandscope launched an EDM campaign targeted at retail partners, informing them about the partnership and guiding them on how to access and use the system for placing both indent and refill orders. Marketing assets were also uploaded onto the platform to facilitate the simultaneous capture of product orders and relevant POS requests during the indent process.
To enhance marketing efforts, a dedicated Havaianas brand landing page was created within Brandscope, featuring links to videos, lookbooks, lifestyle imagery and other supporting assets to promote key product lines and marketing themes effectively.
As part of the configuration process, educational and marketing assets were also uploaded at product level to enrich storytelling capabilities and ensure that retail buyers and their associates had all the relevant information at their fingertips to formulate accurate buying and marketing decisions.
Retailers were grouped into relevant geographic territories and connected with respective sales representatives and independent agents to foster collaboration in indent and refill ordering. The final step involved comprehensive training for all users, ensuring continuous engagement and maximising its beneficial impact.
“The onboarding process was slick”, recounts Tom, “and was finalised over a ten week period ensuring minimal disruption within the business. A number of our retail and sales partners were also familiar with the tool so the scene was set for a quick adoption which was very important to upper management.”
Outcome
The introduction of Brandscope reduced their sell period by four to six weeks and allowed Havaianas a crucial extra month in lead time to facilitate early and comprehensive fulfillment. The earlier data collection also contributed to the business intelligence and manufacturing decision making processes in identifying key sellers within the collections which could be supported with additional stock purchases.
“Reducing the guesswork has made the business more efficient and most importantly has reduced inventory issues which has resulted in less discounting and a more curated offer”, said Tom. “When it comes to in-season business, they say you can’t predict the weather, but you can plan for it and Brandscope allows our partners to immediately respond in our peak period.”
Havaianas experienced a considerable sales spike when the system went live, eventually resulting in a 30%+ increase in refill business within the first 24 months of implementation. This surge typically occurred between Sunday and Tuesday which anecdotally was the result of hot and sunny weekends.
“The platform delivered a level of immediacy and market connection that we’d not experienced previously”, summarised Tom. “It was a two-way data feed between the business and our partners whereby retailers could order 24/7 and respond quickly to demand, and Havaianas could get a quick read on the market and supply accordingly.”
“Our retail partners really embraced the independence that the Brandscope platform awarded them with respect to both accurate and timely information which allowed them to really support the brand (… and also their customers) at an unheralded level.”
Retailer’s improved access to a ‘one stop shop’ for digital and physical brand assets improved ordering efficiency and allowed customers to pick and choose a bespoke range of marketing and educational assets that aligned with the seasonal buy to support both in-store and direct to consumer digital marketing.
“With over 880 national doorways, communication was historically a pain point, especially for the dissemination of marketing paraphernalia,” recalls Tom, “but the introduction of Brandscope has ensured Havaianas can distribute assets quicker to market and manage obsolescence based on availability and global direction. As a marketing tool, the platform has proven to be incredibly powerful and effective.”
By implementing the Brandscope sales and marketing platform, Havaianas have reinvented the approach to market responsiveness and asset management, positioning the business as a more agile and customer-focused brand. By integrating digital and physical asset distribution into a seamless platform, Brandscope has streamlined operations, enhanced partner engagement, and optimised their product offering to meet global demands effectively.
Testimonial
“Implementing Brandscope into the Havaianas business process was a game-changer for our sales teams and retail partners. It streamlined our operations, reduced guesswork and significantly improved efficiency across our sales and marketing initiatives.”
Background
Toyworld is Australia and New Zealand’s largest network of independent toy retailers and has been serving local communities for over 50 years through a member based model of over 150 stores, showcasing a vast array of leading global toy and hobby brands across an average of 400sqm premium retail floor space per outlet.
Toyworld support office makes available an import range to complement local brands available from globally recognised brands including Mattel, Lego and Bluey.
“Dealing with so many members directly for this import range is a logistical challenge”, said Toyworld General Manager, Sven Karlsson. “We have seasonal product releases which are tied to manufacturing deadlines meaning that we have little leeway in gathering orders and submitting them for approval”.
The tight manufacturing lead-times were further compounded by an inefficient order collation process requiring spreadsheets and PDF sent to members to collect orders.
“Each new release was quite a challenging process which took weeks to complete and was an inefficient process,” clarified Sven. “There was also room for error where orders were being double entered from a spreadsheet into a centralised purchasing platform from which the manufacturing PO’s were generated. “We simply needed a more efficient way to collect orders which provide our members more variety around product ranges and higher margin sales”.
Solution
Brandscope’s unique indent ordering system represented an opportunity for the Toyworld group to consolidate the ordering process onto a single, intuitive platform that integrated directly into the business’ M3 ERP for PO generation.
The system’s powerful templating functionality enabled Toyworld to create and distribute tiered online assortments (i.e. Buy Plans) to the relevant retail groups for fast order review and approval.
“The Brandscope Buy Plan Templating and assortment building function dramatically reduced the preparation time by at least 60% in constructing and distributing these assortments to our members in one hit and also made it much easier for them to review, collaborate with us to confirm their orders.”
Outcome
The primary goal was to expedite the product release and associated order collation process which was achieved on the first launch.
“We expected member engagement to be slow initially given the historical reliance on more traditional sales methods such as catalogues and spreadsheet order forms,” said Sven. “This simply wasn’t the case, with over 90% of our members immediately engaging with the tool resulting in manufacturing PO’s being placed on time”.
“The general feedback from our members was that that tool was quite intuitive and visual, with all the required and relevant information easily accessible to make the correct purchasing decisions”.
For the buyers, engagement also meant more immediate access to important data for internal POS and social media systems to expedite the sales and marketing process.
“Brandscope was a familiar system to our team”, summarised Paul Scott, buyer of Barossa Toyworld, “as we’d previously used it to purchase other brands. Having Toyworld on the system has made it a lot easier and efficient to place orders on new product lines and gather the required data to drive our POS and socials independently, instead of having to rely on HQ to feed the information through. We support a lot of brands, so it’s essential that we’re able to engage with them in a timely manner and support our business needs.”
“Having the direct link to our members means that we can now considerway to expand the product offering,” said Sven. “We can launch more product lines in tighter timelines to create instore diversity and drive marketing campaigns with greater immediacy and efficiency for the benefit of our customers and our own business. It’s been a great initiative and has fostered immediate dividends.”
Testimonial
“Brandscope has streamlined and energised our engagement with our members across the ordering and marketing process and has set the business up for a far more collaborative and unified member engagement with our import program in the future.”
Background
Frank Green is an Australian based manufacturer and wholesaler of award winning reusable drink-wear products with a simple and honest approach to sustainability – build beautifully designed and innovative products that people love and use over and over again!
In the succinct words of Asian Sales Director, Hus Korucan, “As a purpose led company at Frank Green, we’re not just selling products; we’re spearheading the charge against single-use plastics.”
Frank Green distributes to thousands of wholesalers globally across a myriad of channels including lifestyle fashion, action sport, outdoor leisure, pharmacy and cafe outlets.
The diverse Retail footprint, coupled with a high volume of smaller, independent orders, resulted in a logistical challenge to capture an ever increasing high volume of orders and payments quickly and efficiently as the business expanded.
According to Hus, “Time is not our friend and we’re on a mission to scale aggressively and get our product in front of Retailers and into the hands of consumers as quickly as possible to make a positive sustainable impact.”
“Though we adopt traditional wholesale strategies such as Agent networks to liaise with prospective retailer partners, we needed a sales and marketing tool to empower the networks capacity to expedite the sales process and fuel our distribution plans.”
With any growing business, the importance of strong cash flow management was also a priority.
Solution
Frank Green completed an exhaustive global due diligence process to source a wholesale B2B ordering platform that supported sales, marketing, product education and payment processing while integrating seamlessly with their Netsuite ERP system.
“Brandscope ticked all the right boxes with respect to functionality and an intuitive user interface,” confirmed Hus. “We work with an incredibly diverse customer base with an extraordinary variance in technical capacity so the system needed to be super easy to use for our retail partners and sales teams, but also feature powerful functionality to deliver on our demanding business requirements.”
Brandscope was integrated into the Netsuite ERP to support the automated flow of orders, inventory and product status. A core product and point-of-sale collection was then loaded onto the platform and immediately exposed to thousands of Retail buyers across a diverse assortment of wholesale channels.
The Stripe supported e-commerce payment gateway was then installed to support both bank card and direct debit transactions for settlement of at-once orders.
“Brandscope had been working with Netsuite for many years and had a sophisticated order and inventory module that could be loaded directly into the ERP. We had to make some bespoke adjustments to cope with our own internal payment processing customisations and multi-level pricing structures, all of which the Brandscope IT onboarding specialists managed expertly.”
Outcome
“Before integrating with Brandscope’s wholesale payment gateway,” recalled Hus, “our manual invoicing process was consuming precious hours that we knew could be better spent on customer service and environmental impact.
“Since transitioning to Brandscope’s Stripe powered payment gateway, the change has been truly transformative with over 95% of our customers engaging with the ordering tool and paying online at checkout! It was a result well beyond our expectations and has allowed us to grow quickly and efficiently with financial stability.”
“The refined ordering and payment process has significantly reduced the chances of stock outs and improved the Order-To-Cash cycle by about two weeks which has been an extraordinary result for the business.”
Frank Green’s Retail partners now receive immediate confirmation of their orders, providing them with the assurance they need to trust in the business order processing and shipping efficiency. The dual support for credit card and bank transfer payments caters seamlessly to Retailers’ payment preferences resulting in management’s desire to extend the payment option to all New Zealand customers also.
“Perhaps most importantly,” claims Hus, “our warehouse team now has instant visibility of confirmed orders. This has not only sharpened our dispatch times but has also ensured that our sustainable products are reaching the right places at the right time—maximising our impact on the planet.”
Frank Green’s Retailer partners are also enthusiastic about the Brandscope platform from an ordering and payment standpoint.
“Frank Green is a fabulous product and we genuinely want to support the program,” states Greg Rummans, owner of Urban Beach in Australia. “Brandscope just makes it super easy to view, order and pay for the product resulting in consistent re-orders from our end. We’re also able to act quickly on any new products they post online meaning that we’re always keeping the brand fresh instore. It’s a big commercial and sustainable win for everyone.”
Testimonial
Thanks to Brandscope, we’ve seen a tangible acceleration in our operations which is a key piece in our mission to make sustainable living irresistible.
Background
Sito Shades, an exceptional eyewear brand with its roots in Australia, is renowned for crafting meticulously handcrafted, premium fashion sunglasses that serve as both a style statement and a testament to artistry. Their exquisite eyewear is available not only in Australia but also across the United States and New Zealand. Operating under the banner of The Leisure Collective Group, a B Corp-certified company headquartered in Western Australia, Sito Shades proudly stands alongside distinguished brands like Otis Eyewear, LayDay, and Creatures of Leisure.
The Sito team recognized the pressing need for a sales platform that could empower retailers by granting them the autonomy to independently place orders. The Leisure Collective had previously adopted with success diverse brands limited the initiation of orders to the sales team, on behalf of retailers. This approach had its constraints, heavily reliant on communication between sales representatives and retailers. These limitations led to logistical challenges, especially during high-demand periods or when sales team members were on leave. The business sought a more intuitive, collaborative, and user-friendly solution to enhance its operations.
Solution
The Leisure Collective strategically implemented the Brandscope platform across their entire brand portfolio. This comprehensive integration with the company’s ERP system, NetSuite, effectively synchronized the order and inventory processes, enabling real-time collaboration between the sales team and retail buyers. As a result, efficiency was significantly improved, and order frequency saw a noteworthy increase. By granting retailers access to current stock availability and future stock forecasts, the sales team redirected their focus towards enhancing sales and cultivating client relationships, ultimately elevating in-store brand presence and much higher sell-through rates.
Moreover, the business now had the added advantage of a comprehensive repository of marketing and product training materials. This enabled them to deliver product knowledge and promotional activations directly to their retailer network, further boosting their sales efforts. The ability to review past orders remained integral to ensuring a seamless and well-organized ordering process, benefiting both customers and the business with thorough transaction records.
Outcome
Brandscope has streamlined the pre-booking process, making it easier for retailers to place more than seven orders per store. This enhancement has optimised the order placement process and improved the overall synergy between Sito Shades and their retail partners. Notably, the Sito Sales Team has considerably reduced the time spent on phone order processing, which has allowed them to redirect their efforts toward valuable face-to-face interactions with retailers. This shift has enabled them to enhance merchandising, introduce new product ranges, and foster the growth of their customer base.
According to Elle Smith – Sito Inventory Manager “We sought a system that provided our retailers with the freedom and convenience to shop and place orders while enabling our sales team to dedicate more time to visiting customers on the road. Additionally, the platform’s capability to establish a visually appealing showroom, complete with easy access to our marketing assets is an incredibly powerful feature”
Additionally, Sito Shades has witnessed a marked reduction in administrative hours dedicated to order processing within their customer service team. This newfound efficiency has liberated the team to channel their energy into other critical areas of business development and customer service. In other words, Brandscope increased Sito’s business productivity, which led to positive growth.
Testimonial
“We sought a system that provided our retailers with the freedom and convenience to shop and place orders at their convenience while enabling our sales team to dedicate more precious time to visiting customers on the road. Additionally, the platform’s capability to establish a visually appealing showroom, complete with easy access to our marketing assets is another valuable feature.”
Background
Pure Fishing is a leader in outdoor and recreational lifestyle products representing over 30 internationally recognised brands, sold all over the world. The business has operations in 19 countries and a dedicated workforce conversant in 28 languages.
“We run a dynamic business with a lot of moving parts from a brand, product and customer perspective,” said Mitch Birt, ANZ Manager. “Our bespoke B2B was being used by our sales team but lacked the capacity to be a customer-facing solution that our Retail partners could comfortably engage with”.
The Australian fishing industry was still in its infancy with respect to B2B adoption and was still heavily reliant on a Sales Representative based model, centred on a high level of in-store engagement.
“Our sales team were accustomed to the nuances of the current tool and how it dealt with pricing, product filtering and general ordering but it was a big concern pushing it onto our somewhat anti-tech customers, many of whom did not even have POS systems”.
There was the option to invest in internal system updates to make it more palatable to its target audience, but there was still the burden of constant Retailer training and ongoing IT investment to maintain the system’s market viability.
“We also wanted to rid the business of printed catalogues and better manage Retailer requests for digital marketing assets, basic product information such as barcodes and inventory checks. We knew that a customer-facing solution could help with this.
“Our focus really needed to be on building our brands and looking after our customers and consumers,” recalled Mitch, “so a pure-play B2B system that had the capacity to deal with our complexities, be easy to use and known to our Retailers was an attractive option.”
Solution
The Brandscope B2B e-commerce platform was already well established in the Australian and New Zealand fishing markets due to its penetration into the outdoor, sport and leisure retail channels. The system’s unique capacity to manage multiple brands with complicated segmentation and pricing structures, multi-level product filtering across Brand/Division/Segment/Category and the ability to directly integrate with our ERP (SAP) suited the Pure Fishing business model.
The complete stable of brands was loaded onto the Brandscope system under a single release and then segmentation, filtering, pricing and territory allocation tools were applied to coordinate retail views according to Pure Fishing’s business requirements.
“Out of the box, Brandscope could do the vast majority of things that we required from an operational perspective,” recalled Mitch, “but they also worked closely with us on some key custom updates to further refine the functionality to suit our complex wholesale business model”.
“But the real attraction was that the majority of our customers already used the platform for other brands so were very accustomed to logging in, viewing and ordering products, downloading marketing assets and general navigation. Once the SAP integration was in place it was literally a plug-and-play situation and we simply springboarded off Brandscope’s growing market presence.”
The other significant resource draw on the business was the design and printing of catalogues which Retailers were beholden to in the absence of a B2B option.
“Moving away from catalogues was a big concern for us, given everyone’s historical reliance on them for so many years,” stated Mitch. “Brandscope was a valid solution, enabling us to present a live range of constantly changing products to our customers 24/7. Making adjustments at the back-end was also super easy, ensuring that our customers were always looking at accurate product information.”
Outcome
The engagement from Pure Fishing’s retail customer base was instant due to their familiarity with the Brandscope platform and its intuitive flow, making it easy for them to view products, inventory levels, marketing assets and then place refill and pre-book orders.
“It’s been great for our business in that it’s connecting us with remote and smaller format stores that we couldn’t service on a regular cadence due to distance and time restraints”, stated Mitch. “It’s almost like we’re there in-store, working on ranging, whether it’s St Helens, Tasmania or Broome, Western Australia. Customers are also buying with renewed confidence because they can see the inventory levels, know that the product they buy will arrive and are open to trying something a little different simply because it’s so easy to find and order.”
Pure Fishing has also stopped printing catalogues and has invested heavily in maximising the digital environment on Brandscope with informative marketing and educational information that Retailers can also export from the system as required for their POS, B2C and social media platforms.
“Our sales representatives still work intimately with our customer base but we’ve added a whole other level of engagement by providing our customers with a tool that awards them access to an incredible amount of accurate information and immediacy but is also very easy to use.”
“There’s still a lot to do and we’ll always have challenges that push back on new and different ways of doing things which is fine,” stated Mitch. “Our Sales Representatives are seeing the benefits of the system and the incremental benefits of having Brandscope in their sales toolkit as well.”
Testimonial
“Brandscope has provided our Retail customers with a new level of independence in dealing with Pure Fishing. The autonomy has led to greater operational efficiencies and increased sales, especially for our smaller independents who are now revelling in a 24/7 connection to our business across sales, marketing and product education. It’s been a great experience for everyone.”
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.”
Background
Hectic is an established UK and European distributor with a sophisticated network of Agents, specialising in incubating and fostering growing American brands into the complex UK/EU market. Historically, Hectic has incubated brands such as O’Neill, Stance, Sun Bum, Arcade, Florence Marine and Simple. Yeti was an exciting and dynamic addition to the stable and presented a challenge with respect to a very broad distribution channel across Action Sport, Lifestyle, Outdoor, Sport and Leisure compounded by multi-lingual and multi-currency requirements. Compounding this was commercial pressure from the US parent company to maintain an aggressive sales growth profile similar to that experienced domestically, and manage the inventory challenges as a result of fast growth and stressed supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hectic management knew that a reliance on the traditional sales methods of catalogues, spreadsheet order forms and countless onsite showings would present a challenge in achieving the set targets.
“There’s comfort in trodding the same beaten path”, said Hectic Managing Director, Peter Caldwell, “but in this situation I was dubious that we could achieve the aims of our parent company. Digitisation was a possible solution but it was early days and still somewhat unproven.”
Solution
Hectic adopted Brandscope as the primary online B2B sales portal to support Sales teams and Retailer collaboration in launching, viewing and trading an array of products across a dynamic and sophisticated market throughout the UK and Europe. The platform was integrated into the Bright Pearl ERP to automate the flow of orders and inventory between the two systems ensuring that all parties could seamlessly trade 24/7 in any territory knowing that what they ordered would be delivered. The Brandscope system was initially used to facilitate refill but, as supply chain tightened, it was then used to capture pre-book orders to eliminate inventory risk.
“Brandscope was presented to us by people that knew the industry and just spoke our language”, related Peter, “and there was an intuitive flow to the system that just made sense. As an old school kind of guy, if I felt comfortable then I was sure that my Retailers and Sales team would be comfortable as well. We bit the bullet and went for it”.
Outcome
Yeti’s growth through the UK and Europe was steady from the onset, with Retailers embracing the tool as the only way to work with their Sales representatives and place orders for the brand. The elimination of spreadsheets resulted in a significant reduction in human order error and the capacity to easily access the Brandscope platform, and know exactly what was available and when, heralded a new level of Retailer independence in growing the brand. The high level of Retailer and Sales Representative engagement allowed Yeti to accelerate the release process, reduce sampling and present the brand to the market with greater immediacy and reach. Greater accuracy in order capture also facilitated more accurate buying allowing for more refill and lower stock obsolescence rates.
“Seeing the team and our Retail partners embrace the Brandscope platform was exhilarating” said Peter, “and we were able to fortify the processes and protect the brand’s growth against the pressure of an increasingly challenging world brought on by Covid-19 pandemic. More to the point, we were able to grow the brand quickly and efficiently across the UK and Europe and achieve our goals as a business. It was a decision that really paid off”.
Testimonial
“Brandscope has been a critical cog in our brand incubator business model. It’s helped us to effectively manage rapid expansion of our brand set and collaborate with our sales team and Retail partners with greater immediacy. It’s a tool that has enabled us to sell more and reduce costs simultaneously which is the perfect commercial outcome.”
Background
XTM was born when a handful of influential friends put their heads together. During a 1999 brainstorming session, Peter Forras, Gary “X” Rae and Bill “The Uncle” Dalton sat down in a spirit of competitiveness, irreverence and deep respect, to explore what their combined lifetimes of snow expertise could teach them. The three decided to create a brand that would change the face of Australia’s snow sports industry and show the world that Australia is a country to be taken seriously in Winter sports.
The brand’s value proposition was high quality product at an affordable price resulting in a massive clientele base from on-mountain stores to city based boutique Retail outlets. They also had their sights set firmly on the overall outdoor market which offered a product synergy and global aspirations to distribute into North America and Europe.
“We wanted to extend our global reach” says XTM founder Peter Foras ” but also to better service our more isolated customers that were close to the mountains. We needed to tell people our story and make it super easy for them to support us. As we grew, I also wanted to be mindful of our headcount to ensure we expanded in an efficient and streamlined manner”.
Solution
XTM engaged with Brandscope and loaded consecutive pre-book and in-season releases onto the platform along with a magnitude of marketing and technical product information to drive brand awareness. Brandscope was then integrated into the SAP Business One system to deliver greater backend efficiencies with ordering and inventory control. Sales Agents and internal staff were then educated on the system and Retail partners prepped in readiness to pre-book launches. As a latter step, international catalogues were loaded at specific currencies to service a growing network of global distributors.
“The onboarding process was very well executed and you could tell very quickly that Brandscope was going to be a solid long term partnership”, recalls Peter. “Implementing new technology into a traditional business full of old heads was daunting but the structures were there to guide the team along, which resulted in a quick update by everyone involved”.
Outcome
The new online ordering process was immediately embraced by a solid portion of the Retailer clientele with pre-book orders quickly flowing into the SAP ERP. Refill orders soon followed as the system continued to entrench and the more isolated accounts began to increase order volumes because “it was easy to use and access” (some accounts grew by over 400%).
“By giving our trade partners the ability to see our stock availability and allow them to order 24/7 as opposed to office hours has been the main refill driver. It has also been a perfect marriage for those retailers who prefer to buy without sales rep input directly from the screen, they have effectively quadrupled their budget with us as it is their preferred way to buy”.
Marketing campaigns were later launched to further incentivise brand and specific categories. Distributors also rallied behind the system to place bulk future orders for respective territories.
“Embracing the platform into the business created true win/win benefits for our old and new customers, agents, distributors and our bottom line in broad cost savings’, said Peter. “Everyone found the system to be very intuitive and effective, and it’s consequently evolved into a essential part of our business in an effort to sell more, reduce costs and expand our domestic and international distribution.”
Testimonial
“We chose Brandscope first and foremost after consultations with leading retailers that use a combination of multiple online ordering platforms and traditional methods. It became clear to us that they placed all their Brandscope orders first due to the speed and ease of using the platform.”
Background
Unify Brand Partnerships (UBP) is a UK based distributor of sport, outdoor and lifestyle brands throughout the UK.
Management formulated a high growth strategy which included the addition of an online B2B system capability to market and sell our products.
The B2B needed to:
- easily provide product and marketing information to Customers
- support the pre-book and refill sales process
- enable Customers to place pre orders easily and review real time stock availability to purchase in season stock
- support Internal Teams in processing the increased volume of orders more efficiently
The UBP business needed to introduce automations that would protect against the expected parallel costs in taking on additional resources to support the growth.
Taking on new brands to drive growth is a big commitment, outlined Dominic Flanagan, Head of Finance at UBP. “Our systems need to be able to deal with the associated challenges to deliver the desired growth. Automation and delivery of efficiencies was required to support the management of increased Customer Service workload, the generation of catalogues, samples and showrooms that really ate into the profit of each new acquisition.
We’d never engaged with B2B before but were impressed with Brandscope’s functionality, intimate knowledge of the nuances around the wholesale process and overall capacity to deliver cost saving automations and more streamlined procedures.”
The other challenge was collating, analysing and formulating bulk purchase orders to support manufacturing and pre-book demands within a very tight window, a situation expected to worsen as the brand volumes grew.
“Due to the high volume of pre-booking, we needed to get the final bulk orders completed within deadlines,” recalled Dominic. “If we could secure and process orders faster we would have more time to review the buy, resulting in greater ordering accuracy, with better and faster decision making on additional inventory purchases.”
Solution
UBP considered a number of B2B options and identified Brandscope as the right solution to support the targeted growth.
UBP engaged with Brandscope and spent ten weeks integrating their Orderwise ERP to automate order, inventory and product information data flows between the two systems, while loading the seasonal pre-book releases for their first four brands. Due to the complicated nature of the territory set-ups, pricing and segmentation modules were also introduced to ensure correct views for Retailer partners at product level.
“The onboarding process was very fluid and we found the Brandscope team to be highly efficient and supportive in the overall process, from a technical and non-technical point of view”, said Dominic. “They spent a lot of time with our internal team workshopping our processes and market interaction to ensure that pricing, market segmentation, territory structures and information feeds were all optimised by implementing the right modules. Management, Marketing, Sales, IT and Customer Service departments were all involved in this process. Integration, support and ongoing service is great.”
Outcome
The impact on pre-book timelines was dramatic, with orders being received into the Orderwise ERP 200% faster than prior seasons awarding UBC with more time to review and then formulate bulk orders.
“Pre-books came in faster, but we could also report on the orders that were still in motion (buy plans) giving us visibility on popular Retailer styles. By having this information, we were able to order additional stock against trending styles which fuelled in-season refill and gave us greater control over stock obsolescence. This is extremely key in helping to manage inventory exposure and capital risk.”
The administration weight on internal resources also diminished (despite new brands coming online) due to orders being received directly into the ERP from the retailer or sales representatives, and Retailers having greater access to information like marketing assets, barcodes, product specifications to self-manage.
“By engaging the Retailers in the system,” said Dominic, “it’s allowed us to do more with less but also refocus internal energies into areas that really help our partners as opposed to double processing data.”
“Brandscope’s functionality is closely aligned with the nuances of wholesaling and it’s very apparent that the system has been well thought out with respect to real life application,” says Dominic. “This was particularly relevant with pricing, but also in defining territories, product segmentation and custom filtering to ensure that our Retailer buyers were always seeing information that was specifically relevant to their own business. This really instilled confidence in the tool which will continue to equate to greater engagement.”
Overall we are very pleased with the decision to engage Brandscope as our B2B Solution.
Testimonial
“The Brandscope software platform is backed by business processes, as much as it is technology, focussed on streamlining traditional wholesale methods and delivering both profitability and scalability. If your strategy is to grow fast on limited resources and capital, then it’s built for you.”
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