Case studies / Retail and ecommerce
Case studyOne stock number across channels for an omnichannel retailer
A retailer selling in stores and online connected inventory, orders and channels in NetSuite before peak season, ending oversells and handling returns consistently.
Overview
A lifestyle and homeware retailer with a chain of stores in Irish and UK towns, a fast-growing website and listings on two marketplaces. Online had grown from a side project to a third of sales in a few years.
Scale. About 30 stores, a website and two marketplaces, thousands of SKUs and sharp seasonal peaks in the run-up to Christmas.
The challenge
On the busiest Saturday before Christmas, the website sold the same last cushion three times. One customer was delighted; two received apologies. Multiply that across thousands of products and the retailer had a real problem.
Stores and the website had different stock counts. The website took a stock file from the stores and warehouse each night, and anything sold in a store during the day stayed available online until the next update. Marketplaces were updated by hand, less often still.
Oversells were common, especially on popular and low-stock items. Each one needed a manual correction, a cancellation and a customer service conversation, and marketplace oversells risked penalties against the retailer's seller rating.
Returns were handled differently in each channel. Online returns went to the warehouse, store returns stayed in the store, and stock from returns often took days to become sellable again.
Leadership wanted to offer click-and-collect and ship-from-store, but neither was possible without knowing what was actually on each store's shelves.
The finance team had its own version of the problem. Sales from stores, website and marketplaces arrived through different routes, with fees, refunds and payouts reconciled by hand. Margin by channel was a quarterly estimate rather than a monthly fact.
The solution
NetSuite holds inventory for every store and the warehouse in one place. Sales in any channel update stock immediately, and each channel sees available stock according to the agreed rules.
Order management routes online orders to the best location, whether the warehouse or a store with stock. This made click-and-collect and ship-from-store possible for the first time.
The online store, point of sale and marketplaces are integrated with NetSuite, with stock updates flowing in near real time and orders flowing back. Courier labels and tracking are generated automatically.
Returns are processed the same way in every channel. A customer can return an online purchase in any store, the refund is handled consistently and the item becomes sellable again as soon as it is checked.
Customer records bring store and online purchases together, and financials record sales, payments and returns by channel and location.
The engagement
- Five months, finished ahead of peak season
- Five specialists
- Channel and stock rule mapping, NetSuite inventory, order management, financials and customer records, integration with the online store, point of sale, couriers, payments and marketplaces, peak testing and go-live monitoring.
Integrations
- Online store
- Point of sale
- Courier
- Payments
- Marketplaces
How we delivered it
- 01
Map channels and stock rules
Four weeks
We mapped every sales channel and agreed stock rules: which locations could fulfil which channels, how much safety stock to hold back for stores and how returns should flow back into sellable stock.
- 02
Configure and connect
Seven weeks
We configured inventory across locations, order management and financials in NetSuite and connected the online store, point of sale, couriers, payments and marketplaces, all reading from one stock position.
- 03
Migrate and test peak
Five weeks
Products and stock were migrated, and we tested peak scenarios at volumes above the previous Christmas. The tests exposed integration limits that we fixed long before customers could feel them.
- 04
Pre-peak go-live
Four weeks
The retailer went live well before peak season. We monitored integrations, order flow and stock accuracy closely through the first weeks and into the first big promotional weekend.
Results
- One stock number across stores, web and marketplaces
- Far fewer oversells in peak season
- Consistent returns in any channel
- Click-and-collect and ship-from-store launched
The business now has one stock number across channels. Store staff, online customers and marketplace shoppers all see the same availability.
Oversells have fallen sharply. The first peak season on NetSuite brought far fewer cancellations than the year before, and the customer service team spent the weeks before Christmas helping customers rather than apologising to them.
Returns are handled consistently. Customers can return items wherever is convenient, and returned stock is back on sale within hours instead of days.
Click-and-collect launched in the first year and is now a meaningful share of online orders, bringing more customers into stores.
Finance now sees sales, returns and fees by channel each month. Marketplace payouts reconcile automatically, and leadership can compare the true margin of store, web and marketplace sales when planning ranges and promotions.
We found our integration limits in a test in September, not on a Saturday in December. That alone paid for the testing.
What made the difference
Peak-season testing exposed integration limits early.
