Flexible Shipping Operations: How Duluth Trading Co. Transformed Peak Season Challenges with Shipium

October 23, 2024

Business Challenge

Duluth Trading Co. previously had a relatively good shipping solution in place, but they faced significant challenges that limited their efficiency during peak seasons. Key issues included:

• Slow Operational Changes: Adjustments to carrier selections, business rules, and volume limits required external IT support, often leading to delays of months.
• Site-Specific Solutions: Each warehouse operated under bespoke systems, necessitating repetitive changes across locations and increasing the risk of inconsistencies.
• Limited Control: The lack of flexibility often resulted in higher shipping costs and a diminished customer experience, especially in one of the company’s largest expense areas.
• Frustrated Stakeholders: Teams across finance and marketing struggled with the inflexibility of the shipping operations, impacting cost management and promotional initiatives.

As the 2023 peak season approached, these challenges threatened to escalate costs and disrupt operations, particularly with rising order volumes during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Solution

By adopting Shipium, Duluth Trading Co. significantly exceeded its previous capabilities, enhancing flexibility and efficiency during peak periods:

• Cost Containment Strategy: Shipium enabled Duluth to implement strategic business rules and a comprehensive carrier network, leading to a dramatic reduction in shipping costs during peak times.

• Responsive Marketing Support: When marketing requested guaranteed delivery by Christmas in mid-December, Shipium made it possible to accommodate this change within a single day:

• Collaborative Configuration Changes: The teams worked together to adjust the shipping strategy, ensuring timely delivery while optimizing costs.

  • Dynamic Delivery Estimates: Shipium’s machine learning-powered models provided accurate time-in-transit estimates, increasing delivery confidence.
  • Rapid Implementation: All necessary adjustments were executed network-wide in just a few hours, supporting all relevant shipments.

"Shipium’s flexibility helps us optimize for what’s best for Duluth while still getting the benefits of automation across all our shipping operations." — Brad Comstock, Sr. Director Enterprise Technology

Results

With Shipium's integration, Duluth Trading Co. transformed its shipping operations, achieving remarkable improvements:

• Enhanced Control: The self-service console allowed Duluth to efficiently manage shipping operations and configurations during peak season.
• Expert Support: Shipium’s collaborative approach helped identify significant cost-saving opportunities through joint analysis with Duluth’s team.
• Cost Efficiency: The carrier selection process ensured the lowest shipping costs while meeting customer delivery expectations, particularly for promotional commitments.
• Operational Smoothness: Warehouses using Shipium experienced no downtime during the peak season, even amid rapid changes to support marketing initiatives.