Customer
The Citizenry, a high-end global furniture and décor brand that invests tens of millions of dollars into artisan communities around the world to bring exclusive collections into our homes. The Citizenry is the first home goods retailer to have 100% of products made with a fair-trade process audited and guaranteed by the World Fair Trade Organization.
Challenges
Prior to working with WSI, The Citizenry was outsourcing their fulfillment operations to another 3PL. Their inventory was crammed into a small facility, and they felt the technology solutions their current partner had were insufficient given their growth. They were looking to switch to a larger 3PL that had experience with fast-growing businesses and could provide scalable logistics solutions.
Solutions
Warehousing & Distribution
To begin, The Citizenry needed more space that was better optimized to suit their needs with a mix of rack and bulk storage locations. Leveraging its expansive warehouse network, WSI offered the Citizenry space in its fulfillment center in Dallas, Texas. This warehouse was ideal for its storage availability, proximity to The Citizenry’s headquarters, and transportation routes. This solution allowed The Citizenry to optimize their warehousing and transportation strategy, leading to cost savings.
Omnichannel Fulfillment
The Citizenry sells a variety of home furnishings and décor, including heavy and oversized items. This requires specific material handling equipment and careful training. The goal is to maintain the quality of their unique products and a reliably safe work environment for the employees who pick, pack, and ship orders.
In addition to fulfilling direct-to-consumer orders, WSI also manages shipments to The Citizenry’s own brick-and-mortar retail locations. Eventually, the company also landed a partnership with a major home storage retailer: The Container Store. WSI’s experience with retail compliance and B2B fulfillment allowed for a seamless transition.
Technology and Visibility
By partnering with WSI, The Citizenry leverages Manhattan Active WMS –a Gartner top-rated warehouse management system. Combined with WSI’s Order Management System (OMS) and proprietary Partner Portal, they gained a level of inventory and order visibility that they had not enjoyed previously.
This visibility, which included details on inventory availability for kits, helped reduce backorders and improve overall inventory management.
Additionally, the optimizations made by combining technology and WSI’s expertise improved key performance indicators (KPIs) such as:
- Dock-to-stock turnaround time
- Inventory accuracy
- Order accuracy
- On-time shipping accuracy
Value-Added Services (VAS)
Product quality and unboxing are part of the customers’ experience with the brand, and maintaining The Citizenry’s high brand standards is key. Our fulfillment experts put together custom kitting and detailed boxing SOPs for The Citizenry’s products, so they arrive safely in packaging that is sure to impress.
Other examples of services WSI provides to The Citizenry include:
- Quality Assurance
- Returns & Reverse Logistics
- Light Cleaning/Refurbishing
- Light Assembly
- Kitting and Bundling
We Treat Our Customers Like Partners
At our core, our goal at WSI is to facilitate a partnership between our team and our customers. “Our partnership with [The Citizenry] is a true partnership,” says WSI Sales Manager Alex Court, “We work together at every step so both businesses can operate efficiently.”
Challenges are common in the logistics space, but we’re not afraid to roll up our sleeves and work together to solve a problem.
“The WSI team is not only organized and thoughtful, but extraordinarily pleasant to work with,” agrees Caelie Fryers Doyle, VP of Ecommerce Operations and Planning for The Citizenry, “The integration was very seamless, but whenever we ran into any kind of challenge or roadblock, there was a true partnership in problem solving.”
Looking for a true partnership of your own? Talk to us today.