Simplification of Shipping
If you can't find suitable shoe fashion in most shops, you're not alone. More than 75,000 customers worldwide have discovered Schuhhaus Horsch for precisely this reason: a specialist for the latest shoe trends in oversize and undersize. The Stuttgart-based company, which also has branches in Düsseldorf, Munich and Hamburg and operates an online shop, receives orders even from Sydney, Russia and Shanghai. Until recently, managing the high shipping volume was a time-consuming process for the employees. The switch to REMIRA merchandise management, including the integration of a DHL interface, has simplified everything.
Optimise Ship from Store
What is increasingly being used today as "ship from store" has been practised by the family business for years. Although there is a warehouse at the Stuttgart headquarters, 80 per cent of the shoe pairs are offered in the branches and also shipped from them if required. A demand that has grown immensely in the past years of the company's 75-year history: "Our main channel is now online," says Dennis Hanninger, who as a member of Horsch's management is responsible for IT.
Branches as Warehouses
But for the customers, who sometimes travel more than 150 kilometres to the specialist shop, the entire fashion range is to be available on site. Horsch not only offers special sizes of renowned shoe brands such as Gabor or Lloyd. The in-house design and product management team does its utmost to realise new fashion trends in special shoe sizes. It tracks down the latest shoe fashions in the world's metropolises and at international fashion shows. The models in special sizes are then realised in cooperation with producers in Southern Europe. "I recently went with Mr Horsch to the shoe factories of our partners in Spain, where, in addition to Italy, we have exclusive production for us," Hanninger reports. Customers can choose from around 9,000 articles in the Horsch online shop. All the branches form the warehouse for the incoming orders. Until the end of last year, this meant that the employees had to find out where the shoes ordered online were stored, then compile the customer and item data and put them together on an invoice - and then prepare the package with the right address for dispatch. If there was a return, the corresponding customer data and the corresponding invoice had to be searched for in the system.
As a result, these processes were time-consuming and should no longer be managed manually, Hanninger reports. Due to the increasing online orders, the requirements for the merchandise management and cash register system also changed. It became important that a regular online comparison and synchronisation of all inventory data in the systems took place:
"We no longer wanted to drive each channel separately, but to merge online and stationary."
REMIRA Solution with DHL-Connection
The conversion to REMIRA merchandise management was planned together with REMIRA. The new system, including cash registers, went live at the end of 2020. Hanninger is convinced of the solution: "The system change was a stroke of luck for us". With the new solution, incoming shoe orders are distributed among the branches and invoices are created within minutes. Another facilitation is a new interface that connects the merchandise management system directly to the parcel service provider DHL.
The REMIRA system not only invoices, it first allocates the incoming orders. By determining the source of supply, the system can assign the orders placed in the web shop to the locations that have the requested shoes in stock in the desired version via a stored set of rules. A pick list is automatically created, which the branch staff use to process the incoming orders. The article numbers can now be entered quickly and accurately with a scanner. The system also creates customer invoices automatically, forwards them digitally to the customer in advance and simultaneously triggers the printing of the shipping label via a DHL interface. The automated address check by DHL also minimises incorrect deliveries. Returns are made with a DHL return note and when the parcel arrives, the posting back into the REMIRA system is now done simply by barcode scan.
"We have an extreme acceleration compared to before. We can cope well with the growth in the online area. Otherwise, five female employees were busy creating the invoices. Now it's done in a matter of seconds."
Enterprise Resource Planning as a Central Hub
Theoretically, Horsch could also have had the web shop system connected to the DHL interface, but the merchandise management system was to be the central hub. The interface to DHL was therefore newly created by REMIRA. Hanninger: "For us, the online shop is only a collection point for the orders, we do everything via the REMIRA platform this is also an advantage for our sales consultants who then only have to work on one system." Hanninger is not only satisfied with the result, but also with the cooperation with his service provider REMIRA:
"Customisation requests were implemented within a few weeks. From start to finish, REMIRA made it work to perfection."
REMIRA systems used at Horsch
Enterprise Resource Planning
REMIRA merchandise management manages the supply of your areas with goods and takes over the company-wide goods control largely automatically. You can manage and track millions of articles and receive suggestions for stock transfers, price changes or reorders.
Advantages of enterprise resource planning:
- Ready for omnichannel: Connecting webshops via a universal webshop interface
- Fast: Use the electronic data exchange EDI and save additional time
- Available: Relocate to fast-moving shops with the merchandise control system
- Present: Up-to-date data is available to you in the dashboard, both stationary and mobile, including informative graphics.
POS software
The REMIRA checkout software optimises and accelerates checkout processes. A central management automatically synchronises all changes in the system. You can check whether the changes have really reached all branches via live monitoring. REMIRA POS software also tells you who your customers are and what they have already bought in other branches. The course is set for omnichannel, because the software provides real-time data - important for the connection of a webshop. Another plus of REMIRA POS is the variety of connected payment service providers.
Advantages of the POS software:
- Cross-sector: Use everywhere in retail (non-food), whether in one or hundreds of branches
- International: Expand globally with different languages, currency and fiscalisations
- Customer-centric: Engaging customers with gift cards, vouchers, couponing and loyalty schemes
