How a Traditional Brick-and-Mortar Retailer Pivoted to Omnichannel in Just Four Weeks

Background 

A plush toy retailer, Build-A-Bear, built a name for itself with its unique in-store experience where families come together and create their own one-of-a-kind stuffed animal. 

Initially, this retailer leveraged a home-grown system for order management. While they thought this met their requirements, they identified long-term gaps and needed an OMS that could scale with their business and offer them new retail opportunities. Additionally, their system siloed channels (inventory & orders), so they lacked omnichannel and comprehensive order management capabilities.

They selected Deck Commerce, the leading D2C order management system, because the SaaS OMS natively had all of the functionality they needed to meet their long-term retail objectives.

 

Challenge 

In January 2020, the teams collaborated and mapped out a plan to build and expand their omnichannel experience by utilizing Deck Commerce’s in-store fulfillment (ISF) module.

The plan was to launch in Q3, however, the coronavirus pandemic struck in March, temporarily closing brick-and-mortar stores. This escalated the retailer's need for an omnichannel plan—not only to drive revenue but as a way to keep as many associates working as possible.

 

Solution

Through Deck Commerce’s powerful order management system, this brand quickly and successfully launched an omnichannel strategy in the midst of the pandemic.

By adding the store fulfillment module to their offering, they were able to pivot their physical retail stores to micro-fulfillment operations— protecting revenues, giving associates the opportunity to work, and still providing their guests with the ability to make special memories, one furry friend at a time. 

The Deck Commerce store fulfillment portal helps store associates stay organized and productive while picking and packing boxes.  The strong integration between ShipEngine and Deck Commerce has made it easy for store representatives to manifest and print shipping labels from the same screen they use for other order processing tasks, so they don't have to manage and learn multiple systems to get orders out the door.  Rather than using multiple screens and systems to manually enter shipping details, associates can print labels directly from the Deck Commerce UI (using data retrieved from ShipEngine), significantly reducing manual data errors and time to ship orders.  

Just months after launching, stores across the United States and United Kingdom have shipped tens of thousands of orders.  Since launch, the retailer has onboarded hundreds of ship from store locations internationally, supporting an anticipated 70% increase in omnichannel volume for the following holiday season. 

 

Results