Automotive Case Study
Get Lowered Cycles is a motorcycle parts and accessories retailer.
Company Profile: Mike Smith grew up in a family that loved riding and building motorcycles. As he got older, Smith was commissioned to find Harley Davidson parts on eBay for his dad's bikes. He jumped on the demand for aftermarket parts and set up an account with a manufacturer. Ordering parts for his dad turned into ordering and selling parts himself online, which eventually led to the birth and ownership of Get Lowered Cycles.
Solution Partners: Shipworks | Big Commerce | Solid Commerce
Market: International
Industry: Automotive
“Because of the reliable services ShipWorks and SkuVault have been able to provide for us, we have the ability to focus more on growing our business and staying up to date with our industry.”
Challenge | Tedious shipping process and manual inventory entries
When Smith and his wife Meg started their business about 10 years ago, the shipping process was tedious, especially when it came to manually taping shipping labels to each box. When they moved past selling 10-15 items per day, they turned to ShipWorks for help. “As we grew we eventually turned to using thermal labels and we came across ShipWorks which helped streamline the shipment process a lot,” says Smith. They also ran into trouble with inventory organization. “Before SkuVault, we didn’t have a way to sync our inventory to our storefronts,” he said. “We would usually adjust inventory levels manually and errors did happen every once in a while.”
Solution | A combination of software for shipping and inventory solutions
Get Lowered Cycles chose to use ShipWorks early on because they could get a ton of features at a low price. As they continued to grow they needed a system to track order fulfillment processes and improve quality control. “We choose to use them [SkuVault and ShipWorks] both because of their ability to work with each other,” says Smith. “The packing slips, which are printed through ShipWorks, all have a barcode that goes with the customer’s order. Once an item is picked we use the SkuVault system to scan the packing slip and items in the order to ensure the correct items and quantities are getting shipped to the customer.”
ShipWorks' ability to compare rates quickly, automatically track items across selling platforms, and send customers return labels via email has saved the Smith’s time and money. As for SkuVault, they value the user accountability feature to track action history in order to reduce shipping errors, coupled with the luxury of accessing their live inventory at any time, anywhere with the web-based software.
Results | Reduced mis-picks and faster shipping process
Without the help of ShipWorks’ automated features, Smith says their shipping process would be stuck in the Stone Age. The SkuVault-ShipWorks partnership works together again by implementing a barcode system to cross-reference orders and verify for accuracy. As a result, Get Lowered mis-picks have decreased from 3% to 0.5%, and they are now able to fulfill more orders in one day than ever before. Although it all sounds simple enough, Smith knows selling online can be a challenge. “It’s definitely not a quick and easy process as some people might like to believe,” he says. “Things are always changing, and you have to stay up to date on things in the marketplace on so many levels.” However, going forward he believes his business will thrive with systems set in place like SkuVault and ShipWorks. “We feel confident that we now have all the systems in place that would allow us to grow the volume of the business,while still being able to offer our customers fast, reliable service they have come to expect from us,” says Smith.