Borders.com is the sister
company to Borders, Inc., better known as Borders Bookshop
or Borders Books and Music. It is a subsidiary of Border’s
Group, Inc., the world’s second largest retailer
of books, music, video and other informational, educational,
and entertainment products. Borders.com is a premier e-commerce
site that has access to nearly 700,000 titles and over
10 million books, music and video items in stock and ready
for immediate shipping. Borders.com thinks of itself not
only as a terrific resource but as a community as well.
It is more than just a Web site. It is a place where you
can share your thoughts on your favorite titles, where
you can get to know authors and artists through interviews
and features, where you can find a schedule of upcoming
events and where you can chat with other book, music and
video lovers. Their commitment to customer satisfaction
is evident through such features as their Info Desk, significant
discount offerings, out of print title searches, order
status checking availability, and gift services including
gift certificates, wrapping and personalized searches.
In the past year Borders.com has earned four number one
rankings for customer service and site performance. The
ratings came from Gomez Advisors, FeedbackDirect.com,
Service Metric’s “Turbo Santa”, and Internet
Bookseller Scorecard.
Borders.com’s Challenge
With at least 200 Web e-commerce sites offering books,
music CDs and videos, Borders.com had to stand out from
the crowd. “It takes more energy to ship a single
book than a bulk shipment,” said Steve McAlexander,
Chief Logistics Officer of Borders Group, Inc. It takes
more discipline and real-time information to make e-commerce
work. It is critical to maintain an accurate inventory
because being out-of-stock can mean loosing a customer
for life. It is equally as important not to carry a bloated
inventory. Borders.com needed a distribution center specifically
geared for e-tailing in order to dominate the market.
When a customer places an order he expects that it will
be shipped quickly and correctly. “Any failure in
filling an Internet order means we have an dissatisfied
customer. Ensuring that doesn’t happen requires a
different level of intensity on our part,” adds McAlexander.
Borders.com’s Goals
To ensure that it meets the needs of its e-commerce
site, Borders.com built a multi-million, 200,000 square
foot distribution center specifically geared for the
demands of e-tailing. Located in Tennessee, the facility
opened in May 1998 when its Web site, www.borders.com,
went live. The fulfillment center carries more than
700,000 SKUs on its 54 miles of shelves, or more than
10 million volumes altogether. This facility was purposely
built for receiving and shipping single copies of books,
CDs and videos. In addition, it also handles special
orders for the company’s 1200 plus retail outlets.
Borders.com needed a warehouse management system that
could specifically handle all aspects of this e-fulfillment
center.
Catalyst’s Solution
Driving the distribution center’s operation is
Catalyst Warehouse Management (WMS) Release 7.0. The
system operates on a Hewlett-Packard 9000 HP UX server.
The standard Catalyst system was modified to add a number
of safeguards to avoid inventory errors and out-of-stocks.
For every order placed at Borders.com, the Web commerce
server accesses the Catalyst system via a permanent
network connection to confirm the availability of that
book, CD or video. Within seconds, the Web server is
able to either accept the order or inform the customer
that the title is not immediately available. If the
item is in stock and the customer places an order, the
Catalyst system immediately reserves that title on the
fulfillment center’s shelf. “It has to be
that way. We can’t give one book to three people,”
McAlexander said. The Catalyst system aggregates orders
to create the most efficient picking routes for the
100 plus employees who staff the fulfillment center
over three shifts a day, six days a week.
Borders.com’s Return on Investment
The Catalyst WMS allocates and processes over 20,000 orders
received daily and allows Borders.com customers to receive
their purchases in one to seven days, depending on what
shipping option they select. Catalyst WMS effectively
supports the fulfillment processes to achieve high fill
rate and shipping accuracy. Borders.com has achieved sufficient
gains in labor productivity. |
