Founder Danny Ing and guest retail expert Chris Wilkinson raise the level of discussion from fear to practicality during Auckland conference
AUCKLAND – August 31, 2017– Cin7, a world leader in cloud-based inventory management, raised the level of discussion for New Zealand fashion retailers preparing for the arrival of Amazon in Australia, during a breakfast conference on August 29.
Cin7’s Founder and Chief Architect Danny, and guest speaker Chris Wilkinson, said New Zealand should see Amazon as an opportunity and prepare for its arrival with an integrated, multi-channel strategy that leverages their products’ strengths while creating an efficient supply chain to manage order fulfillment.
“Amancio Ortega (founder of Zara) and Jeff Bezos didn’t make their money with products, but by mastering the supply chain,” Ing said. “What I want people to understand is that we’re on a journey to help our customers to maximize the supply chain and bring them into this new era: just as driverless cars have become a reality, so is the ‘driverless supply chain.’”
Cin7 helps businesses by integrating their overall inventory with each eCommerce platform, an online marketplace, retail trading partner, warehouse, and third-party logistics provider they use. With their integrations in place, Cin7 customers can automatically:
• Download orders from marketplaces like Amazon, and eCommerce platforms like Shopify
• Route orders to their warehouse, branch store or 3PL partner for fulfillment
• And pick orders in the warehouse or 3PL
“Roughly 25% of Cin7 customers are in the fashion and apparel sector,” Ing said. “What’s the secret or obvious distinction? Automate the supply chain…by the end of the year we will have automated 50% of our hundreds of overlapping workflows, and by the end of 2018 we will have automated up to 95%.”
Automation and integration will become even more important as retailers establish their Amazon sales channel. As Chris Wilkinson said during his presentation, Amazon will become a permanent fixture in the retail scene requiring New Zealand retailers to:
• Find their fit locally and in their product category.
• Create a brand customers want to identify with.
• Have the best product messaging and digital content possible to drive online traffic.
• Re-prioritise sales across brick-and-mortar, eCommerce and marketplace channels.
• Make their products as unique as they can.
For more information on the Cin7 integrated inventory management solution, visit www.cin7.com.
