Matrix Park
Western Avenue, Chorley
Lancashire
PR7 7NB
United Kingdom
“Our customer ratings across a whole host of review sites are really impressive. None of these things would have been possible without the system, alongside the help and guidance of the fulfilmentcrowd team. I would recommend their platform to any company that’s looking to improve their profitability and efficiency.” Colin Christie, Managing Director.
Founded in 1992 and having gone through a significant growth period as one of Europe's largest distributors for pet grooming products, Christies Direct needed a system that was specifically tailored to its business- one that could match the company’s expansion plans, provide true market insight, and improve efficiencies.
Previously Christies Direct had used a labour-intensive system with each processed manually. This meant that not only was there more room for human error, but the whole process was very time consuming. Having used an out of the box software system for 10 years, Christies knew that it was lacking market insight in order to forecast for and meet the needs of its customers.
Colin Christie explains: “We first encountered fulfilmentcrowd at a trade show in Birmingham in 2011. Immediately we were impressed with their offering – they were able to automate order processing, which would save us a lot of time and resource. fulfilmentcrowd's ‘click history’ would also allow us to see where our employees were struggling and the areas we need to provide extra support and training to improve efficiency.”
It was also the business intelligence modules embedded within fulfilmentcrowd’s platform that provoked the interest of Colin, particularly the forecasting module.
Colin explains: “Their system was able to give us a really clear idea of what stock to order based on historical sales and estimated growth figures - it was able to predict how and what our customers were buying."
Colin believes that it’s more than just the system that creates a great partnership. The customer service and faith in the software were also big selling points. fulfilmentcrowd’s commitment to really understanding how the business operated that shone through, a service that has proven invaluable to start-up ecommerce retailers time and time again.
“When it came to implementing the software, the fulfilmentcrowd team were very hands on. Before implementation we had several meetings so they could understand exactly how our business worked, what our processes were and how the new system could be tailored help us improve. As we went live we had two fulfilment reps on site to ensure the process went smoothly.”
“fulfilmentcrowd have always been very customer focused and personable, which is one of the things that attracted me to the company as they are more than just tech savvy. They’re a real business which truly understood my business’ needs.”
The now-automated nature of fulfilment has made a massive difference for Christies, growing from less than 200 orders a day to consistently fulfilling over 400.
In 2016, Christies Direct were named Digital Team of the Year at the Digital DNA awards, as well as UK Digital Marketing Team of the Year 2016 at the Digital Entrepreneur Awards. Colin gave credit, saying: “We’d attribute a lot of our success at the awards to fulfilmentcrowd's system – it’s allowed us to gain an insight into our customers’ buying history to profile them, allowing us to craft the perfect campaign for each individual.”
fulfilmentcrowd’s reporting systems have also made a significant difference for Christies, enabling them to create a wide range of custom reports monitoring everything from stock to sales. Colin now dubbs fulfilmentcrowd’s platform “futureproof” claiming, “I’m confident that we’ll be using our current system far into the future. I can’t see a scenario in which fulfilmentcrowd aren’t able to provide the service that we need and grow with us.”
We help companies around the world improve their order fulfilment and delivery performance. If you would like to discuss your requirements in more detail, please contact us.
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