Customer story: GRAHAM & BROWN
With an ecommerce brand that was flying, Graham & Brown knew they needed to remove delivery as an inflexible blocker to growth. Hear what Stacey Thurston, Logistics Direct Manager at Graham & Brown, had to say about her transformation work…
Graham & Brown have been making walls look beautiful and improving homes for over 70 years. They create and sell British-made design led wallpaper; paint and art internationally – serving the UK, America and Europe online, through a network of branded stores and a number of distribution retailers.
The challenges
- Single carrier delivery offering
- Limited IT resource for multi-carrier integration
- Manual delivery management processes
- Customer frustration
Redesigning delivery
What were the problems they faced?
With a single carrier delivery offering, Graham & Brown customers were given little to no choice at the checkout. As the business grew, so did the expectations that the logistics operation could keep up with the demand of customer convenience. But, it wasn’t easy.
“No-one in the business wanted to onboard new carriers,” remembers Stacey, “it was so resource-heavy and painful.”
Not having a multi-carrier offering or a delivery management platform meant a lot of hands-on work in the warehouse, too. “If customer orders needed changing, we had to cancel the label and change it manually for each order.”
How did they find Sorted and why did they choose us?
It was a recommendation from their main carrier, actually. Stacey’s carrier account manager gave the introduction and told her to speak to Sorted. But Graham & Brown wanted more than just a supplier. “We wanted to work with someone that made us feel like a valued partner,” says Stacey.
After going through pitches, it was clear there was only one winner. “With the market leader, we knew we’d be a small fish in a big pond. We just weren’t confident we’d get support and attention after the contract was signed.” Sorted offered bespoke support, speedy turnaround on contact and offered to engage the Graham & Brown IT teams, so they could take learnings from the implementation too.
With the market leader, we knew we’d be a small fish in a big pond. We just weren’t confident we’d get support and attention after the contract was signed.
Stacey Thurston,
Logistics Direct Manager
What Sorted solution did they use?
Ship, part of the Sorted Delivery Experience Platform, can help create a dynamic checkout by ensuring the web front end connects seamlessly to the warehouse operations. Plus, it acts as a single-integration carrier connector
What are the results?
Time has been saved, efficiencies have been realised. Plus, growth and expansion into new markets, increased positive customer experience, removal of manual processes, and upgraded carrier offering.
The solution
Ship has over 1000+ services in its carrier cloud, and gave Graham & Brown the control to turn new carriers and new services on and off without the need for dedicated IT resource each time. Also, it removed the need to manually change labels.
What was implementation like?
Stacey notes that communication with Sorted never stopped and the working relationship has always been very strong – even when things got challenging, as IT projects of this scale often do. “They’ve always been very honest, even when there were bumps in the road, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
What does delivery management success look like?
Now, Graham & Brown have multiple carrier connections enabled at the checkout, meaning more delivery options and increased customer choice. “Customers are really complimentary about deliveries now, it’s rare we get complaints about the experience – which wouldn’t have always been the case before.”
Stacey notes that, although the improved delivery experience for customers has gone alongside a really exciting growth period for the business, it’s only one part of the success her project has brought.
“On top of the improved service and cost efficiencies, it’s more than just an increase in orders and parcels. We’ve saved more time than anything else – from the shop floor, to the IT resource, to every single export shipment that used to require hands-on keyboards.”
Customers are really complimentary about deliveries now, it’s rare we get complaints about the experience – which wouldn’t have always been the case before.
Stacey Thurston,
Logistics Direct Manager
What’s next?
More expansion! More carriers are on the cards, to further improve the customer offering. Plus, with a shiny new delivery management system in place, Graham & Brown are planning moves further into Europe.
Alongside that, there’s an exciting focus on improving checkout and returns systems too. Seems like they’re really on a roll… (Get it? On a roll. Like a roll of wallpaper? Ok… we’ll see ourselves out.)