Fishing retailer transforms fulfilment with WMS

UK-based sports and hobbies retailer Fishing Tackle & Bait has successfully transformed its international fulfilment capabilities with Descartes’ cloud-based ecommerce warehouse management solution (WMS). With Descartes, the multi-channel merchant scaled order processing capacity by 250% without adding labour. In addition, it was able to virtually eliminate miss-picked items and overselling of inventory, and reduced customer service queries by more than 70%.

“Our business was originally a classic brick-and-mortar retail store, but we soon realised we had to broaden our distribution strategy and participate in marketplaces like Amazon and eBay to ensure future growth not only in the UK but also in Ireland, Europe and North America,” said David Burleigh, Director of Fishing Tackle & Bait.

“With COVID, we suddenly experienced an incredible spike in sales of over 250%. With only manual processes in place, we soon faced inaccurate stock levels and disappointed customers who were waiting for their deliveries. We were considering hiring additional staff when our ecommerce platform provider, IRP Commerce, recommended the Descartes ecommerce WMS to us. Now we’re extremely proud of our current logistics operations and our ability to better control over our customers’ delivery experiences.”

Part of Descartes’ ecommerce solution suite, the Descartes ecommerce WMS solution helps direct-to-consumer brands and ecommerce retailers rapidly scale in combination with providing an improved customer experience. The solution helps ensure that retailers can ship on time, ship the right items, reduce risks of overselling existing inventory, and have greater transparency into warehouse operations.

The Descartes ecommerce WMS solution has integrations into major ecommerce platforms to accelerate implementation and time to value. Order information is automatically available to be executed via mobile driven multi-order pick-and-pack strategies and then fed into parcel shipment systems.

“We’re pleased that Fishing Tackle & Bait is able to deliver a highly satisfying online buying and delivery experience to their customers,” said Dirk Haschke, VP & General Manager, Ecommerce at Descartes. “Our scalable ecommerce WMS offers efficient and intelligent processes that eliminate key warehouse management problem areas for online retailers. Fishing Tackle & Bait’s ecommerce success demonstrates the importance of automated order fulfilment for growing multi-channel merchants that want to stay ahead of their competition and retain satisfied customers.”