8 websites, 4 stores and an entire distribution network
60% YOY increase in B2C sales for the Schöffel brand
1 platform managing an entire B2B and B2C retail journey
4 channels maximised - B2B online/direct, B2C online/in-store
The brief
A family business founded in 1935, Bradshaw Taylor are a UK & European distributor of outdoor, fashion and country wear apparel and accessories.
They have multiple warehouse locations in the UK, four retail outlets and a growing eCommerce operation.
Bradshaw Taylor were looking for an eCommerce solutions provider that could offer an all-encompassing platform to manage and grow their:
- 8 eCommerce websites, which were managed across two platforms.
- In-store EPOS technology.
- B2B operation, managed on a third platform.
The solution
By streamlining their existing management processes they hoped to improve the experience they provided to both trade and retail customers, move away from the operational inefficiencies that were losing them time and money, and increase their profit margins by growing their direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue.
By migrating their operation to our platform, Bradshaw Taylor could then manage inventory and stock levels for all eight brands through a single platform, as well as their prolific distribution network.
The migration included eCommerce website development projects for several of the Bradshaw Taylor brands.
We provided integrated EPOS systems for their four retail outlets, with all brick-and-mortar transactions synced back to the central Venditan Commerce master stock and order record.
Bradshaw Taylor could then keep a detailed track of the stock and transactions of all their selling and distribution channels, across all of their brands.
Venditan Commerce also became Bradshaw Taylor's centralised control point for B2B customer management.
Sales staff could view all information about a trade customer from a single screen. This gave them full visibility of pre-agreed discounts, payment terms, existing orders and communication history at any time.
Fragmentation costs businesses money
The scourge of fragmentation had plagued Bradshaw Taylor, with multiple platforms governing their operations, leading to inefficiencies and increased IT costs.
Our platform emerged as the ultimate solution.
In the context of retail and distribution, fragmentation refers to an operation that is divided or separated into various disconnected parts. There are times when this can be a positive but, generally speaking, this is problematic for all businesses regardless of industry.
Bradshaw Taylor were using two different platforms to manage their eight eCommerce websites, another supplier for their EPOS and a third platform for the distribution arm of their business. Staff were having to sell stock to themselves in order to move it from one system to another. This was an administrative nightmare and often resulted in issues and delays.
As well as inefficient working processes, this was costing Bradshaw Taylor threefold in increased IT expenditure and draining time when training staff to operate three different pieces of technology.
Our platform has been developed to provide a comprehensive solution for retailers or distributors experiencing technology, data, or process fragmentation by offering one powerful, customisable ERP that can handle all aspects of their business.
For further reading, we delve into this topic in an article covering how Venditan Commerce empowers an omnichannel eCommerce solution.
The impact of having one central ERP
Driving efficiency with one bespoke, cloud-based solution for all of Bradshaw Taylor’s B2B & B2C operations.It becomes impossible for a distributor to manage and grow their various brands if there is a lack of integration between those channels. It can result in inventory discrepancies, inefficient order fulfilment, siloed customer data, and an increasingly inconsistent customer experience. Migrating to Venditan Commerce unlocked several benefits for Bradshaw Taylor, benefits that continue to power their growth to this day.
Flawlessly streamlined
Using Venditan Commerce as their central ERP has allowed Bradshaw Taylor to streamline their operations by consolidating their various business functions and processes into a single, integrated platform.
They have vastly reduced their technological bloat, made it simpler to do what they need to (order management, inventory control, purchasing, financial management, and customer relationship management) and enabled a smoother, more coordinated way of working.
With a comprehensive view of customer data across all of their brands they are able to unlock greater insights into order history, communication records, and customer preferences - allowing them to understand and serve their customers quickly and accurately.
Built to suit existing processes
Although Bradshaw Taylor wanted to improve and adapt, not everything needed to start again. There were some existing internal processes and concepts that they wanted to keep - these worked well for them after being tried and tested over the past 20 years.
For example, they operated with four different categorisations for stock availability, allowing goods to be shared across the business without becoming ring-fenced for retail or trade.
Due to the flexible and bespoke nature of the Venditan Commerce platform, we were able to customise areas and incorporate existing concepts to fit the optimised elements of their pre-existing inventory management approach.
Ready to scale
Due to its inefficiency and difficulty, Bradshaw Taylor's pre-existing set-up provided no real opportunity to scale.
Venditan Commerce is designed to grow with the trajectory of the business, accommodating increasing order volumes and expanding product catalogues as you go. Website hosting is cloud-based and scales to meet peak traffic demands.
This made us the perfect choice for Bradshaw Taylor and their ambitious plans to grow D2C revenue across their eight outdoor, fashion and country wear brands.
With new features and updates provided on a regular basis, as well as around-the-clock technical support, we guarantee a smooth and reliable experience for all businesses that choose Venditan Commerce as their ERP.
Feature focus
Learn more about three specific Venditan Commerce features that Bradshaw Taylor are making the most out of.
Advanced Stock Availability
Placing trade orders with a distant fulfilment date may result in the stock being isolated and occupying warehouse space for several months until it is ready for dispatch.
It was imperative for Bradshaw Taylor to ensure that this stock could be made available for retail purchases, whenever possible, without compromising the fulfilment of the trade order when the time came.
Therefore, our team was assigned the task of developing a solution that would enable Bradshaw Taylor to keep stock simultaneously available for both retail and trade orders.
Further, Venditan Commerce follows a first-come, first-served approach in allocating stock to customers but Bradshaw Taylor specifically requested manual allocation functionality to have greater flexibility in distributing their stock among their trade customers.
This proved to be highly beneficial for their relationships. In situations where only a limited amount of stock was available for distribution, it allowed the trade teams across their various brands to serve multiple customers rather than allowing a single purchase to deplete the entire inventory.
Multi-lingual website development
The migration to Venditan Commerce included eCommerce website development projects for several of the Bradshaw Taylor brands.
The development project for Le Chameau saw the launch of a multi-lingual website, covering audiences in the UK, US, Germany and France using subdirectories and generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to serve different language variations of the website to users. For each language, a specific subdirectory is created in the website's URL structure. Therefore, lechameau.com has subdirectories such as "/de" for German and "/fr" for French.
Additionally, the correct hreflang attributes were installed into the website's HTML code. These tags indicate to search engines the language and regional targeting of each page, helping search engines to understand and rank the website's language-specific content correctly.
When a user accesses the website, their language preferences or location can be detected using browser settings. Based on this information, the appropriate language version of the website is served by redirecting the user to the corresponding subdirectory or gTLD.
Financial Risk Assessment
Before trade orders are dispatched, they are added to an Approve Orders For Dispatch screen.
This allows Bradshaw Taylor's finance team to review orders, check credit limits and identify any outstanding invoices before they reach the fulfilment process.
By reviewing orders, they can assess the creditworthiness of customers, identify any potential payment issues, and mitigate the risk of non-payment. Checking credit limits enables them to control credit exposure and prevent overextension of resources.
Permissions are set at a user level so only the most senior members of the finance team are able to approve orders over a certain value.
Nick Vance
Director, Bradshaw Taylor
We can help you
Spend less and achieve more with our feature-rich eCommerce platform. It combines best-in-class modules and intelligent management systems, powering your growth and managing every aspect of your online and physical operations from a single point of control.
