Skateboarding retailer SkateHut is gearing up for a sales boom when the sport returns for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Skateboarding ‘s debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics kick-started a global phenomenon, making Team GB’s bronze-medal winning teenager Sky Brown a household name, and resulting in an increase in cross-generational participation.
Now, an expanded skateboarding schedule planned for Paris in August is expected to take adrenaline-inducing activity to dizzying new heights.
SkateHut was established in 2007 by Mark Johansen-Berg following a family holiday to Florida with his wife and three sons. When his eldest son spotted a pair of Heelys in one of the theme parks, he just had to have a pair! Upon arriving back to the UK, they realised that Heelys were nowhere to be seen. Mark and his family decided to do something about it. They now stock skateboards, scooters, skates, bikes, clothing, footwear and just about anything else skate related.
SkateHut now consists of three warehouses and three stores – SkateHut Halesowen, SkateHut Corby (Adrenaline Alley), and the newest addition, SkateHut Manchester. Plus they sell on channels including Amazon, eBay and John Lewis!
As SkateHut prepares for a surge in sales in decks, trucks, wheels and protective gear, it has further invested in technology to ensure it can cope with the summer order spike. Frankly, they had a massive problem – As well as the inefficiencies of human resources and time, there was a bottomline cost. Incorrect labelling was costing up to £6,000 per week in surcharges from couriers. The solution they were using for the dispatch benches was inadequate, clunky to manage and couldn’t do everything that they needed it to do.. We needed control and better support when something went wrong
The solution was the deployment of Descartes Peoplevox warehouse management system, and Shipster shipping integration platform which connects online retailers, ecommerce warehouses and distributors with over 100 leading couriers. These two solutions have automated SkateHut’s pick to ship process, increasing efficiency and productivity, increasing profits and enabling operational flexibility for growth.
The collaboration has now expanded to Linnworks, the ecommerce software, which connects to sales channels like eBay and Amazon, boosting SkateHuts reach further.
Skateboarding’s popularity surged during the pandemic and the Tokyo Olympics. Its return to the global stage in Paris is set to trigger a major boost in demand for skate equipment.
Working with Descartes Peoplevox has enabled us to increase the amount of orders we process, while Shipster has made the dispatch process tremendously slick.
Seasonal surges can be tricky for businesses like ours, especially when accurate and on-time delivery are so crucial for building and maintaining a customer base. Investing in the right software stack has been vital. The technologies have proved to be the perfect solution for our growing business.
– Dell Blundell, Operations Director, SkateHut
Skatehut sells anything from the tiniest bolt for a skateboard to 10 ft long surfboards to customers all over the world, generating a complex array of 12,000 shipping requirements. These are handled by Shipster’s powerful rules engine, which collects order data from Descartes Peoplevox, contacts the courier, books in the shipment, prints the relevant shipping and promo documents, and then passes back the data to Descartes Peoplevox and SkateHut’s sales platform.
Meanwhile, Shipster’s flexible licensing model also means that the business can add or remove licenses or couriers during busier or quieter periods. The result is a seamless end-to-end solution from ecommerce order through to dispatch which is fast, accurate and scalable.
The flexible connectivity that Descartes Peoplevox offers enables us to integrate with best of breed software across the ecommerce ecosystem, including Shipster. The importance of a water-tight tech-stack across the lifecycle of an order minimises risk of mis-ships, increases effectiveness and maximises your chances to consistently over deliver on customer expectations.
– Johannes Panzer, Head of Product Strategy, Ecommerce, Descartes
Retailers need a solution that is efficient, cost-effective and gets products out of the warehouse to customers seamlessly. Working together, Shipster and Descartes have developed a bespoke end-to-end pick-to-despatch system that has transformed SkateHut’s accuracy, productivity and scalability. It means SkateHut are ready for the sporting summer as skateboarding is beamed into the homes of a new generation of fans and inspires more to give it a try.
– Tony Cheetham, Founder and Managing Director, Shipster
