When your brand has multiple stores across the country, all with different owners, stock and special pricing, maintaining a seamless customer experience can be tricky, to say the least. 

That’s the challenge that Paper Plus brought to us in 2019. The franchise has about 100 independent stores all around New Zealand. The challenge was giving store owners autonomy over stock, prices and their customers while minimising costs and delivering a single and seamless customer experience online and off. That all came down to an order fulfilment process that could handle so many moving parts. 

Working together, we designed all the steps from receiving an order to getting the items into the customers’ hands – using MaxCommerce. The extensive process uses tailored fulfilment logic based on their complex business rules. It takes into account everything: the requirements of each store, including their commissions, stock consolidation rules, click and collect vs. home delivery processes, the needs of B2B vs B2C customers, stock availability in stores, fulfilment centres or suppliers, and store-specific B2B customers. 

The result? Paper Plus reduced freight costs, gave dispatch staff clear visibility of orders, and made it easier for customers to order online or click and collect from their local store.

Removing a step, saving cost

Organisations like Paper Plus often use customer-direct fulfilment – if an item isn’t in stock, the business requests it from the supplier, then sends it to the customer. With smart integrations with suppliers, the process skips that last step – the supplier sends requested items straight to the customer. 

That significantly reduces time and cost – but it wasn’t an easy fix. While some of Paper Plus’s 10 suppliers have large, complex ordering systems, smaller local suppliers might not even use digital inventory. 

This meant orders needed to be delivered in different ways. For example, for Gardners, their largest supplier, we built an integration that aligned with their Home Delivery specification. This uses files to send orders, receive acknowledgements and dispatch updates. Orders to local suppliers use either CSV or XML files or emails. 

We have also simplified and automated the process of delivering orders. The smart order management system can direct items from different suppliers, between instore or arrange for home delivery. Each order is attached to a shipping method and categorised depending on criteria like where is it coming from, if a courier is needed, if it’s Click & Collect or in-store pickup.

Simple web CMS interface

The stores and fulfilment centres use the simple web CMS interface to view and process orders. 
In order to keep with their delivery promise to customers, stores are given a time period to review and accept orders during set work hours. Any orders not accepted are automatically rerouted to a fulfilment centre or supplier.

Complex fulfilment? Simple 

Paper Plus proves it’s possible to have a thriving online business, even in a complicated business structure. With tailored fulfilment logic based on a robust eCommerce platform like MaxCommerce, every detail of your process can be factored in – resulting in better experiences for your customers, cost savings for the business and easier processes for teams at every level of the business. 

If you’d like to talk about how we can help simplify your complex fulfilment process, get in touch with the Solutionists team now.