Art.com is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce provider of art prints, posters, and custom-framed pieces of art. Decorating thousands of dorm rooms, homes, and office walls requires an extensive inventory. In fact, Art.com stocks millions of unique items in its vast warehouses across the US and EU.
To meet customer demand for its wide range of products, Art.com needed to increase efficiency and productivity.
Many of Art.com’s biggest problems stemmed from its paper-based processes. Art.com shipped so many different items that even printing picking tickets provided a significant challenge.
During previous holiday peak seasons, Art.com employees had been greeted by enormous stacks of pick lists. And because the company offered such a wide variety of items from multiple vendors, it could not use barcodes. Instead, the company used a visual process with thumbnail images of each print to help employees confirm the correct piece of art to pick for each customer.
Art.com sought a mobile-first solution to automate its unique visual pick process while streamlining data reporting back into the company’s ERP, Oracle E-Business Suite.
In Art.com’s search for a solution, speed was a priority.
“We were looking for something that could integrate seamlessly into our ERP,” Bob Inman said. “We knew if a company could do that for us, it would be a fast implementation.”
After seeing Cloud Inventory® in action, Inman was sold: “Once you see that, you get a sense relief and think, ‘Ok, these folks really know what they’re doing.’”
Art.com chose Cloud Inventory because the company needed a solution that would optimize—without replacing or disrupting—existing business processes. The company implemented a personalized Cloud Inventory mobile app that streamlined the process of getting the right product to customers on time.
“They took exactly what we did on paper and just made the paper go away,” Inman said. “The solution enhances our visual picking process with large, clear images that match up to the art print. As a result, our picking accuracy has gone up.”
With the automated process, the Art.com team can now accomplish more.
Senior Picking Lead Jeri Carr said of the solution, “Before, pickers would have to come in and individually sign out each batch. But now, they just jump right on an iPad, they key in their passwords, and they’re gone.”
Cloud Inventory also helps Art.com reduce errors.
Carr said, “With these batches, every once in a while, pieces of paper would stick together, and pickers would miss a whole page of orders. Now that orders are on the screen, they pick them one at a time, and there’s no possible way of missing any product.”
In addition to reduced errors, Art.com has also experienced other benefits, including increased productivity.
“Since we’ve implemented Cloud Inventory, we’ve seen roughly a 5% productivity improvement,” Inman said. “That was just by order fillers being able to pick more efficiently, not having to manipulate the physical paper picking tickets.”
Art.com now has the self-sufficiency to improve operations now and in the future.
“If we want to tweak our process flow at any time, we have experts in-house that can do that, so we’re not reliant on somebody to schedule an appointment to come out to make a change,” said Inman. “We control our own destiny in that way, which is very, very good for us.”
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