When MJ Holding expanded to a new warehouse facility, it partnered with a materials handling and consulting firm to ensure the warehouse could accommodate its inventory storage and distribution needs as well as expand its ability to meet e-commerce orders.
are intended to identify segments that we can service and how we should service them,” Zabloudil says. However, MJ Holding has e-commerce abilities because the company does business with Walmart, Amazon, and other retailers like them and is able to do ful llment for them. “Expanding the capabilities for us to ful ll direct orders, the business- to-consumer orders became a critical element of our decision making,” Zabloudil says. Because Alpine’s data analysis spotted the growing e-commerce activity, MJ Holding wisely decided to ramp up its capability to meet a changing world. “We were right in front of the pandemic,” Zabloudil notes. “We went live with our e-commerce platform in fall 2019. Then, when the pandemic hit in March 2020, we were in a good position to continue to handle and manage the growth on that platform from B2C customers.” DRAWING CARD MJ Holding continues to process B2C e-commerce orders for companies like Walmart even though many people have resumed shopping in brick-and-mortar
stores. Certainly, the volume of orders increased during the height of the pandemic but, according to Zabloudil, they are now at a consistent level that is elevated and still driven by new item releases. “Buying behaviors have been forever changed by COVID,” he adds. Zabloudil points to another dynamic at play as well. There is a cyclical nature to MJ Holding’s primary product, which is trading cards. During the height and waves of the pandemic, people were digging out and going through their trading cards and looking at what they had. Not only did MJ Holding’s business take off, but the businesses that grade cards, the online auctions, the trading, the selling, all boosted interest in the category. That interest shows no sign of abating. In fact, MJ Holdings predicts card collecting will continue to be as dynamic a process as it has been over the past two years. The company foresees the trend continuing for at least the next ve to seven years. MJ Holding’s partnerships with Conveyor Solutions and Alpine Supply Chain Solutions, and its savvy investment in automation, prepared it for the change in consumer behavior and whatever else is in the cards. n
“The storage methodology that Alpine recommended eliminated
our dependency on those ve outside warehouse locations,” says Zabloudil. In the midst of analyzing MJ Holding’s sales data, Alpine noticed something interesting. In 2018, the company handled 86,000 e-commerce orders. By 2019, that gure had practically doubled. Initially, the news did little to alter MJ Holding’s laser focus on the retail side of its business but Wohlwend soon convinced Zabloudil it was worth investigating. The growth factor just couldn’t be ignored. Alpine performed another STA into MJ Holding’s e-commerce proceedings, which ultimately led to the creation of what was at rst a small area dedicated to e-commerce orders in the new warehouse. “When the pandemic hit, we expanded that area out to meet demand so it was very timely,” says Wohlwend. MJ Holding doesn’t have an e-commerce website it can perform transactions on in the true sense. The company is limited to distribution agreements with its suppliers—world renowned brands such as Topps, Panini, Pokemon, Magic, and Yu-Gi-Oh. “Any of those distribution agreements
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