35% increase to pick productivity leads to 'cruising through' Black Friday. How strategic tech decisions enabled huge global growth for Australian fitness wear brand, Lorna Jane.

Peoplevox and Starshipit interviewed Danny Hancock, the Global Operations Director of Lorna Jane. He explains how they’ve grown their network of fulfilment operations around the world, the tech platforms they’ve put in to enable tremendous growth, and the scalability they now have thanks to their integrated e-commerce tech stack.

Short video: 35% productivity boost overnight! Epic warehouse transformation leads to global growth w/Lorna Jane
Full video interview: The Customer Interview: Peoplevox and Starshipit Case Study with Lorna Jane

Lorna Jane are one of the most recognisable Aussie brands around. They’ve gone from strength to strength, starting up as a small niche market entrant serving the female gym-goers of the local area and are now, just a few years later, emerging as a key player on the global landscape in the activewear space, selling across the Asia Pacific and European regions. 

Theirs is a complex and sophisticated logistics operation, with both e-commerce and physical retail presence in multiple markets. A China-based distribution centre runs as their core operating hub for all direct-to-store fulfillment and replenishment, and this works alongside regional warehouse facilities for ecommerce orders serving their local markets. These are the three warehouses that have Peoplevox running as their direct to consumer WMS. Separating out the operational landscape of the business in this way allows Lorna Jane to divide out focus areas with purpose-built solutions, rather than trying to combine efforts with a clunky all-in-one set up.

That’s the set-up now, but let’s wind back the clock and look at what Lorna Jane were after when it came to a purpose-built system for their ecommerce fulfillment centres. Lorna Jane had a very basic, analogue system running their warehouses, and knew they needed a digital, tech-first approach to transform the way they worked and allow them to grow. They wanted not only a system that would drive increased productivity, but also a way of measuring those improvements and tracking progress in the short and longer terms.

Key areas of focus were:

• Is it scalable to see us through numerous years of growth?
• Is it a global solution, a platform that will work in all the markets we are in now as well as future regions?
• Are we building a strategic partnership with a vendor for long-term shared growth, rather than just installing some software like a one-off transaction?

Results with Peoplevox in place:

• ‘Phenomenal, streamlined inbound goods receipt’: The system drives productivity and accountability within the team, ensuring the most crucial part of the inventory management process, Goods-In, is carried out at 100% accuracy, leading to perfect fulfillment processes downstream through pick and pack.
• Optimised picking: Putting in Peoplevox gave the warehouse a 35% increase in pick productivity straight out the gate. Where before team members were walking 10-15 aisles for every pick run, now they only walk 2 or 3 to collect the same amount of orders/items.
• Visibility into a global operation: While Ops Director Danny can only be in one place at one time, with multiple DCs running around the world, Peoplevox allowed him to monitor and report on activity everywhere. The large teams in place were empowered to carry out their day-to-day tasks, with management able to check in at both micro and macro level into performance.
• ‘Never miss a beat’: With vast increases in productivity and efficiency, the team totally removed a legacy issue of not fulfilling orders within certain delivery windows and missing deadlines for customer promises. On top of this, they were able to handle more order volume with less people, which proved particularly helpful during COVID/lockdowns where staff were on split shifts or needed to remain distanced.
• Scaling up with ease: Each warehouse around the world is seeing more order volume month over month, and in particular, the New Zealand warehouse is going through a massive growth phase. LJ are able to scale up the operation without re-writing any processes or changing how they work. It’s now a simple case of adding extra licenses, turning on additional barcode scanners and training up the new staff, which, due to the ease-of-use of the system, is something they are able to do in 10 minutes.
• Tight integration with Starshipit for global warehouse and shipping capability. Starshipit are crucial partners in the tech stack for Lorna Jane – you can read up on their work with Lorna Jane over on their website.

 Looking ahead, Danny and the team are excited about the future of the business, and feel safe that the tech stack they now have in place will see them through for the long run:

‘I know that we could double in size quite easily, and still be very sound within the system.’

And as for those all-encompassing Black Friday sales events that spike order volumes and typically create massive headaches for any ecommerce operation:

‘Last year I remember on Black Friday, everyone was walking out the warehouse, sweating, totally wrecked. We were all exhausted, and I’d been running around the office asking all team members, regardless of department, to come down and help out in the warehouse as we were so overwhelmed.

Then this year, things felt odd. In fact, I was starting to second guess the numbers… are we really that far ahead and on target? The new found productivity we gained meant the operation was a breeze. Honestly, it was an absolute pleasure, and all the hard work we’d put in to get to this point had come to fruition at our busiest time. We cruised through, and still pumped out significantly more orders than the previous year. We’d had the nightmares before, but this time, it was kinda fun!’