TOP SECRET – Redan

In 2008, the clothing brand TOP SECRET decided to appear in the e-commerce channel. This meant fundamental challenges for REDAN
– should the e-commerce channel be operated from a stock of goods common to the network of stationary stores or from a separate warehouse?
– at which stage of the return process should products from returns from stationary stores undergo quality control?
The answer to the first question came quite quickly. Top Secret clothes are delivered to the warehouse in pre-packaged size sets (several SKUs in one set), which are sent to stores unchanged. Sending individual SKUs to B2C customers required separate storage. In order to effectively use the available storage space, a decision was made to build a mezzanine. As a result, REDAN gained storage space for 250,000 units in about 25,000 SKU’s on picking locations.he solution to the second problem was also verified relatively quickly by consumers who expected to receive the shipment in accordance with the order and within the declared time. Therefore, the fulfillment of orders had to be carried out from already quality-checked stock to avoid cancellations of items due to the another quality control, which could cause delays in the product shipment process.
Other changes that have a significant impact on the efficiency of the process are:

separation of zones into different assortments in terms of product rotation (T-shirts, dresses) and dimensions (shoes, coats)
most mono-SKU products have been stored in one place to speed up the picking process
extension of location addresses by introducing cardboard boxes with a drawer (possibility of storing two SKUs on one shelf)
giving priority to the picking process of one-piece orders in order to eliminate unnecessary sorting
the picking of multi-piece orders has been improved by the use of flow racks in the sorting process
changes at the shipping station, which led to closing the order, printing the delivery note and the receipt during one process
use of the EAN CODE in the return form, which contains the necessary data to issue a correcting invoice