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IN BUSINESS, AS IN SPORTS, SUCCESS OFTEN DEpends on who you have on your team. A case in point is
athletic fashion retailer Hibbett Sports. Hibbett was conducting zero business online when it began working with
software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider Radial to develop an
omnichannel commerce strategy. Within a year, Hibbett
had met its three-year online revenue target and had integrated inventory across its distribution center and 1,000
stores, putting the company on the road to becoming a
champion in a changing retail environment.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Founded in 1945, Birmingham, Ala.-based Hibbett Sports
had grown from a small family-owned company into a
publicly traded firm yielding $1 billion in annual sales by
2017. The retailer sells a wide range of the top brands in
athletic wear for men, women, and children. Company
leaders knew they needed an omnichannel business strategy
if they were to continue to meet the needs of a changing
consumer market, but as they began to develop their first
online store, they quickly realized they needed help. The
company had never sold goods online or provided customer support outside of its stores.
That’s when leaders turned to technology provider
Radial, which offers omnichannel technology, fulfillment
and transportation, payment, and customer-service solutions to some of the world’s best-known consumer brands.
NEW SOLUTIONS
Hibbett tapped a range of Radial’s services to launch
its e-commerce program. First, the retailer implemented
Radial’s SaaS distributed order management (DOM) sys-
tem to route orders between its distribution center and
stores in 35 states. It also contracted with the vendor to use
Radial’s Dropship program, which helped Hibbett expand
its product assortment and get orders to customers even
faster by accessing a network of 26,000 suppliers that ship
directly to customers, eliminating the need for Hibbett to
store certain products in inventory.
The final piece of the technology puzzle was Radial’s payment, tax, and fraud-protection program, which handles all
aspects of customer payment, fraud management, and tax
reconciliation for online orders. Rounding out the solution,
Hibbett uses the tech provider’s network of customer-service representatives to answer online customers’ questions,
make recommendations, and provide tech support.
INSTANT ONLINE SUCCESS
Leaders at both firms agree that launching an e-commerce
strategy is never easy, but Hibbett’s online success occurred
early and “at a remarkable scale,” according to Radial
executives, who note that most brands see less than 2
percent of revenue from online sales in the first year of
an e-commerce program. Hibbett generated 5 percent of
revenues online in the first 90 days, and was generating
between 7 and 8 percent in subsequent quarters, the companies say.
In addition to meeting its three-year online revenue target by the end of year one, the retailer saw its stock price
more than double in the first year of the program and was
able to meet a growing number of customer-service calls—
more than 100,000 in 2018 alone, the companies say.
Hibbett Sports hit its omnichannel goals in record time with help from software-as-a-service
provider Radial.
Keeping pace with online
demands
tors to select the wrong lot or item number. Replacing
manual data entry with bar-code scanning has eliminated
that risk. “Five years ago, we averagedthree corrective
actions a week due to labeling errors,” Lopez noted in the
case study. “Now that our operators simply have to scan bar
codes, I haven’t seen a corrective labeling action all year.”
GOOD PROGNOSIS
As a result of the implementation, Aspen now enjoys a cen-
tralized label system that seamlessly manages labels global-
ly. The automated process has improved labeling accuracy,
while the regulatory compliance software has enhanced its
ability to comply with labeling regulations.
To top it all off, Aspen is now prepared for future growth.
“As the company continues to expand distribution internationally and to face complicated regulatory compliance
standards, Teklynx Central CFR can streamline labeling
globally, simplify compliance, and provide the bandwidth
for future growth,” said Casey Sciano, Teklynx’s channel
partner manager, in the case study.
