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ChannelApe > Case Studies > Allbirds: Revolutionizing Footwear Industry with IoT
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Allbirds: Revolutionizing Footwear Industry with IoT

Applicable Industries
  • Packaging
Applicable Functions
  • Logistics & Transportation
  • Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
  • Last Mile Delivery
  • Supply Chain Visibility
The Challenge

Allbirds, a rapidly growing direct-to-consumer brand, faced significant challenges in managing its global supply chain. As the company expanded, it had to deal with the complexities of managing fulfillment across multiple facilities, each with its own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), software, and onboarding teams. The task of adding warehouses to scale and managing automated fulfillment business rules for carriers and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) was proving to be a major undertaking. This was diverting time and resources away from the company's primary goal - growth of the brand. The challenge was to streamline and optimize the supply chain without compromising on the brand's commitment to comfort and sustainability.

About The Customer

Allbirds is a San Francisco-based footwear brand that was born out of a simple question: why had the sustainable resource of merino wool never been used in footwear before? This question led Tim Brown, a New Zealand native, and Joey Zwillinger, a renewables expert, to create an innovative wool fabric made specifically for footwear. The result was the most comfortable shoe imaginable. Allbirds has since become the number one direct-to-consumer brand in the footwear space, with a supply chain that spans multiple countries and facilities.

The Solution

Allbirds turned to ChannelApe for assistance in early 2017, as it was looking to optimize and standardize its order fulfillment. ChannelApe helped Allbirds transform a complex multi-store, multi-country supply chain into a single, connected global supply chain controlled by one unified fulfillment management platform. This solution was in line with Allbirds' direct-to-consumer model, which had been launched officially in March 2016 following a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $119,000 in 5 days. The collaboration with ChannelApe allowed Allbirds to maintain its rapid growth while staying true to its commitment to comfort and sustainability.

Operational Impact

  • The collaboration with ChannelApe resulted in a streamlined and optimized supply chain for Allbirds. The company was able to manage fulfillment across multiple facilities more efficiently, saving time and resources that could be redirected towards the growth of the brand. The unified fulfillment management platform provided by ChannelApe also allowed Allbirds to add warehouses to scale and manage automated fulfillment business rules for carriers and SLAs more effectively. This operational efficiency has played a key role in Allbirds' continued success as a leading direct-to-consumer brand in the footwear industry.

Quantitative Benefit

  • Raised $119,000 in 5 days through a Kickstarter campaign

  • Transformed a complex multi-store, multi-country supply chain into a single, connected global supply chain

  • Managed to maintain rapid growth while staying true to its commitment to comfort and sustainability

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