Established in 2000 by founder, Kate Morris, Adore Beauty was the first beauty e-commerce retail site in Australia. Its mission was to make a wide variety of beauty brands accessible to everyone, particularly people living in regional and remote areas.
Adore Beauty has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the past five years and has outgrown its premises several times during this period. On average, the company dispatches 6,500 orders daily from its new warehouse in Keilor Park and its staff of 85 is set to expand to 100 in this warehouse by December.
In 2018, its paper-based warehouse solution was stretched to capacity. The surge in customer orders placed an increased amount of pressure on its staff to maintain the same level of speed and accuracy in its picking process. This alone could compromise their renowned customer service reputation and potential for future growth.
Realising that this was no longer sustainable, particularly as it prepared to move operations to a new facility in Northcote Victoria, Adore Beauty reached out to Gamma Solutions. The company needed to source and implement a robust mobile computing solution that is durable and easy to use. Moreover, Adore Beauty needed a solution that would improve warehouse workflows, reduce the manual labour- intensive transactions and move beyond traditional paper-based recording.
Team culture and satisfaction is an important aspect of Adore Beauty’s continued operational success. Therefore, the experience of its warehouse team in the assessment of its business mobile computing requirements and solution was an important factor that needed to be considered.
Understanding the priority of the staff experience, Gamma Solutions worked extensively with Adore Beauty to design and deploy a robust “point of activity” solution that would satisfy staff workflows and fulfil the company’s supply chain visibility requirements.
A focus group made up of the Adore Beauty’s warehouse employees then reviewed a dozen potential options:
The Zebra TC8000 was a clear winner.
Charley Fisk, Adore Beauty’s Warehouse Operations Manager commented, “The Zebra TC8000 was definitely a crowd favourite. Our team loved the touch screen element and its ergonomics. The device is also considerably light eliminating any concerns about damaging the device if dropped. From an operational perspective, we can continue business as usual with no interruptions and importantly the device is scalable to support future growth.”
More than 35 Zebra TC8000 units were deployed in August 2018 speeding up inbound functions, while increasing order and stock level accuracies.
Results
Since the introduction of the TC8000 solution, Adore Beauty has seen a 30% increase in productivity across the warehouse operations, a 50% reduction in cost per unit and an accuracy rate of 99.9% for outbound orders. The touch screen keypad means warehouse staff can type up to 40% faster with 60% fewer errors.
“Our staff are extremely happy with the new devices. This is really important for our business as they are the ones who use it day in day out. Not only did it get the best feedback from our team but provided us with an investment opportunity that will help us to continue to grow and keep up with changes in the business.”
Watch Zebra’s Adore Beauty case study here and discover more about deploying mobile technology in retail warehouses to increase efficiency and improve workflows.
