Inbound Logistics | March 2023

The Peoplevox warehouse management solution, which more than 100 companies globally have successfully deployed, is geared to help mid-market, direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands manage inventory and accurately fulll orders. “Peoplevox helps companies deliver on the promise to customers to fulll their orders on time and accurately the rst time,” Graham says. Many companies that deploy Descartes operate across multiple sales channels, including their own websites and brick-and-mortar stores, as well as on Amazon and other marketplaces. To keep customers happy, they need to avoid selling items that aren’t actually in stock. This can happen in several ways. For instance, if a company places an order for 100 products but receives only 96, it still might record 100 to inventory. By working with Peoplevox to barcode scan each product into the warehouse, the company knows what’s actually in inventory, limiting the risk of selling items it doesn’t have. LOST AND FOUND Peoplevox also can help companies locate products they didn’t know they had. This can occur when products have been shelved incorrectly and are seemingly lost. The system also can be congured to prioritize certain orders, such as those that need to be lled within a specic time frame. Because Peoplevox automatically generates shipping labels when orders are dispatched, it cuts the overall time required to process an order. Additionally, through its reporting capabilities, Peoplevox can help shippers assess the performance of their warehouses. The reports can show information such as the number of orders processed each day, among other metrics. Reports can show employee productivity as well. In many growing e-commerce companies, the productivity between pickers can vary widely, and yet management has no way of uncovering

CASEBOOK STUDY Always in Fashion THE CHALLENGES

JOELLE Collection, a Quebec-based fashion brand, has grown substantially since its 2016 launch. A lack of manpower and an increase in inventory levels prompted management to consider automating more inbound processes. The company also wanted to boost its ability to pick and pack as many orders as possible and to reduce the risk of fulfillment errors. Any inventory system it chose would need to synchronize with the company’s Shopify sales platform to accurately reflect actual warehouse inventory to online customers. THE SOLUTION Together, two systems from Descartes—the Peoplevox e-commerce warehouse management solution and the ShipRush multi-carrier e-commerce parcel shipping solution—enable JOELLE Collection to provide accurate and timely order fulfillment and customer service. THE RESULTS The same number of warehouse employees now process three times the number of packages they previously were able to handle, while operational reports provide insight into warehouse performance.

JOELLE Collection sells women’s clothing, accessories, and jewelry via its website and two retail locations. To better manage inventory, the company automated its inbound processes.

78 Inbound Logistics • March 2023