Case Study
How a sportswear leader optimized capacity and shipping operations with Uber Freight TMS
Results
Challenge
Overview
As demand for athletic apparel continues to soar across the globe, even the industry’s most popular and well-recognized brands have had to innovate and grow.
One sportswear giant, which traditionally sold through traditional retail channels, has now invested heavily into selling directly to consumers (DTC). So far, this investment is paying off. In fact, already one of the largest sportswear brands in the world, this company’s ecommerce arm is exploding with more than a third of sales now taking place online, requiring DTC parcel delivery.
But this success doesn’t mean the company didn’t struggle in 2020 due to production slowdowns in China and other pandemic-related supply chain challenges. In response, it made even more ecommerce transformation investments, vowing to overhaul its supply chain operations—from opening more distribution centers and introducing more automation, to teaming up with logistics and shipping management partners that optimize delivery.
To do that, the athletic apparel innovator turned to its long-term partner, Uber Freight. Though the company has been working with Uber Freight since 2014 on inbound operations, it expanded the partnership to include outbound operations in October 2021 in the wake of high holiday volume, COVID-related carrier capacity restrictions and pressure to keep shipping costs affordable. The goal? To not only get orders delivered on time, but also deliver an outstanding experience from when shoppers click “buy” to the moment they open the box.
Overview
Historically, this sportswear brand had used disparate, disconnected systems to manage its shipping needs across multiple modes, including truckload (TL), less than truckload (LTL) and parcel delivery. This created several different operational hurdles. The silos limited the company’s ability to optimize across modes and maximize efficiency—it needed a system that would not only centralize all shipments but also unify visibility and tracking, eliminating its overreliance on third parties to deliver this data.
The brand faced another obstacle, too. The company grappled with COVID-related carrier capacity allocation issues. On one hand, the athletic apparel maker faced limitations on the volume of merchandise it could ship as shippers like UPS and FedEx imposed restrictions on how many parcels could be fulfilled by the world’s largest companies. On the other, the company needed to consume the capacity that was allocated to it to maintain solid carrier/shipper relations.
On top of pressure to keep delivery date guarantees, high volumes of orders during the 2021 holiday season exacerbated these challenges amid ongoing supply chain strain.
The need for holistic solution with powerful optimization
Challenge
Uber Freight streamlined shipping for this athletic apparel giant, automatically optimizing items between TL, LTL and parcel, all thanks to the Uber Freight platform. The Uber Freight API team developed an integration layer that transforms and routes data quickly between the company’s various warehouse management systems and the Uber Freight TMS—creating a single, unified architecture to meet the sportswear company’s high volumes of orders.
This was a massive technical challenge, not only given the volume of orders the company processes and the processing speed needed by its operations team, but also because the integration relied heavily on disparate historical architectures that were not easily modifiable. With the unified architecture powered by Uber Freight TMS in place, there’s now a defined, automated process that optimizes deliveries.
For example, as part of the data infrastructure, Uber Freight’s
full-featured transportation management system (TMS) has increased shipping efficiency. The system helps determine whether there are enough shipments to justify a full truck or LTL, or whether those items would be better serviced through parcel delivery. The multi-carrier TMS solution helps maintain stability while avoiding disruption for parcel shipping and optimizing carrier and service method selection.
The unified TMS, greater effeciency, and a solid holiday season
Results
Uber Freight streamlined shipping for this athletic apparel giant, automatically optimizing items between TL, LTL and parcel, all thanks to the Uber Freight platform.