ChannelApe

Allbirds, a rapidly growing direct-to-consumer brand, faced significant challenges in managing its global supply chain. As the company expanded, it had to deal with the complexities of managing fulfillment across multiple facilities, each with its own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), software, and onboarding teams. The task of adding warehouses to scale and managing automated fulfillment business rules for carriers and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) was proving to be a major undertaking. This was diverting time and resources away from the company's primary goal - growth of the brand. The challenge was to streamline and optimize the supply chain without compromising on the brand's commitment to comfort and sustainability.

Birdies, a shoe company founded by Marisa Sharkey and Bianca Gates, experienced unexpected growth since its launch in 2015. The company's unique product, a slipper that combines the comfort of a sneaker with the style of a designer flat, quickly gained popularity, leading to an increase in demand and logistical challenges. Initially, the founders managed the shipping process from their garage, but as the company grew, they started working with third-party logistics providers (3PLs). However, they soon realized that they needed more control over their logistics and were not satisfied with being dependent on a single 3PL and their technology. They sought a solution that could help them scale to more than one warehouse with one or more 3PLs, and that could route orders to the right place with easy technology and flexibility to adjust over time.

Capacity 3PL, a logistics partner for beauty and health & wellness brands, faced the challenge of managing complex logistics for around a hundred brands. The company was responsible for overseeing a wide range of order processing, packaging, and product distribution methods, establishing all of a brand's distribution channels, and integrating with many eCommerce and B2B channels. The complexity of operations increased with the number of SKUs a brand had, making it challenging to receive POs and returns, ship packages, and keep inventory accurate for thousands of customers each week. Capacity 3PL needed a solution that would help their clients manage inventory efficiently given all of the added complexities. The company was also looking for a technology partner that could help them manage inventory, orders, and fulfillment with 100% confidence.

PharmaCare US, a subsidiary of PharmaCare Australia, was faced with the challenge of implementing a direct-to-consumer (B2C) initiative for its Sambucol and Real Health Labs product lines. The task was to transition from sending large quantities of products to retailers like Walmart and Walgreen's (B2B) to sending smaller packages directly to consumers. The company needed to convert customer orders from their multiple Shopify websites into an EDI format and transmit this data via AS2 to their warehouse (3PL). The orders then had to be shipped, and fulfillment data transmitted back to the site, with the customer notified of their order's shipment. This process was expected to occur hundreds of times per day. Additionally, PharmaCare had specific shipping requirements based on the options selected by the customer, which needed to be coordinated with the 3PL.