US fashion retail chain Stage Stores used a Skyfall solution to modernise its regional distribution centre in Jacksonville, TX. It boasts impressively high efficiency and reliability, and with 12 sortation lines and over 5,000 transport pouches it is the first system of its kind that Swiss company Ferag AG has supplied to North America. The trading group uses Skyfall to handle its entire order fulfilment for 13 states across the American south, west and midwest.
Purchases of clothing, shoes and accessories have always been made through a wide variety of channels. Customers might buy the traditional way after trying on in a store, via the stubbornly surviving mail-order catalogue, by teleshopping, or instantly with a mouse click or swipe of a tablet or smartphone – of course these days, online ordering is gaining the upper hand. The Stage Stores chain, a fashion retail specialist, is no exception in this respect. In fact, it runs a truly multi-channel operation. With more than 850 brick-and-mortar stores and several internet portals, its US customer offering includes shoe and textile labels such as Calvin Klein, Clarks, Dockers, Jockey, Lee, Levis and Ralph Lauren. Corporate headquarters is located in Houston, TX, the port city where many of the goods sold in the US enter the country from overseas. A comprehensive restructuring of the company’s goods distribution processes and supply chains was necessary in light of the ongoing e-commerce boom and accompanying increase in order volume, as well as returns management. A principal objective of the fashion chain store was to automate as much as possible, and improve the quality of operations. The Jacksonville, TX, regional distribution centre is located in east Texas, and from the beginning of last year, it became the first in line for measures aimed in this direction.