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R. McKenzie Enterprises
Streamlining an Importer and Distributor’s Supply Chain through E-commerce
The Challenge
R. McKenzie Enterprises specializes in the import and distribution of a variety of products (primarily gift items) for small to medium sized retail businesses in Canada and the US. The company identified a need to increase the efficiency of its order management and fulfillment process to both keep up with the competition and grow its business. At the core of the challenge was the fact that both R.McKenzie’s client base and industry was changing. While most competitors were leveraging the Internet as a sales channel (and gaining market share as a result), R.McKenzie was still only taking orders through sales agents or through its warehouse. The company was also challenged by the growing size of its catalog, as the larger number of items was increasing the frequency of inventory and invoicing errors.
The Solution
IDfusion’s team first conducted a thorough evaluation of R. McKenzie’s supply chain operations. Process charts were developed that tracked the flow of a sales order through the company from the placement of the order, through its credit approval to the order’s fulfillment. Here IDfusion’s experience in building business to consumer applications (B2C) allowed us to identify an online e-commerce software solution that not only lowered R. McKenzie’s ongoing logistical costs but also improved communications between R. McKenzie and its customers. In addition, this software solution automated R. McKenzie’s existing sales channel, as well as helped make it possible to extend the company’s market reach by placing its full catalogue both on the Internet and CD-ROM. The management of the e-commerce site was powered by the same technologies IDfusion Software used to develop Winnipeg’s largest online shopping mall www.mylocalstore.com.
The Results
R. McKenzie has experienced greater staff productivity, lowered operating costs and greater profitability since implementing the e-commerce solution. Orders that were once only received by phone or fax can now also be taken online - a great convenience for the company’s customers. Staff especially appreciate that reports and invoices they had to do manually before, are now done automatically. They also enjoy the fact that they now only enter new product information once into a database to generate content for the company’s print, CD-ROM and Internet catalogues.
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