Overview
As a record-of-the-month subscription service, Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) has four types of customers: existing subscribers, new subscribers, one-time buyers, and customers who switch subscription types. However, they were unable to segment/protect the required inventory for each customer group. As a result, VMP ran into frequent overselling and underselling, and couldn’t guarantee that subscribers would have priority access to specific inventory.
VMP was working in the dark. The WMS system they were previously using provided no visibility or real-time data. A single order would often include in-stock records and pre-sale records, and the system would wait to release the order for fulfillment until the pre-sale record was released. The customer service team was unable to fix these issues without reaching out to the warehouse for support.
It was a huge ask to complete our project on a compressed timeline and on budget. Deposco delivered, and they were transparent about meeting every milestone along the way.
Solution
Segmenting inventory channels was the biggest impact the Deposco team achieved for VMP. Instead of pulling from one inventory pool, each customer type now has its own inventory pool, and inventory allocation can be prioritized for different pools.
Efficiencies were also achieved in fulfillment. With the previous system, an assembly line could only be used to fulfill “singles” orders. A cart system was required to fulfill orders with multiple records. With Deposco, both singles orders and multi-record orders can be fulfilled. This tripled output overnight and has reduced the time required to fulfill orders by almost a week.
Simplified access to customer order information has enabled the VMP customer service team to start addressing customer issues immediately. With full order and inventory visibility, real-time updates, and the Deposco team’s support, VMP is now free to look ahead and focus on new ventures.
