Australian fashion label Kookai has launched click-and-collect across all stores in time for the upcoming peak sales period.
Speaking with Ragtrader, global brand manager Bianca Vagner-Cromb said Kookai’s introduction of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology has driven its latest venture - introduced in the last quarter.
“We already had RFID within our business which has been integral to this project as it has provided us with complete visibility of our retail stock position with accuracy levels of 98-99%,” Vagner-Cromb said.
“This has resulted in an overall order rejection rate of less than 3% from our store teams and an average of 1.5 hours for our teams to accept, fulfil and notify customers that their order is ready.
“We are anticipating some high demand for click-and-collect over the Christmas period.”
Kookai initially introduced RFID technology to its manufacturing facilities in Fiji and Sri Lanka in early 2022.
This had dramatically improved the oversight of its inventory, allowing Kookai to conduct a stocktake of 30,000 items in 30 minutes at its Fiji factory – a process that used to take a few days.
“We are continuously evolving our technical landscape to improve our customer experience,” Vagner-Cromb said. “It’s something we constantly review within our business.”
This also includes introducing 3D design in its creative and manufacturing processes, which has reportedly reduced lead times by 50%.
“When we are working on around 400+ styles a season, and often sampling styles multiple times, the cost savings are substantial.
“In today’s market, the pressure to cut lead times is huge. The fact that you can see design and fit changes in real-time in 3D is a powerful tool for product development.”
More recently, Vagner-Cromb said Kookai transitioned its e-commerce fulfilment from a third-party logistics company to its own head office warehouse in Hawthorn East, Victoria.
“We are currently fulfilling orders both domestically and internationally from this location,” she said. “Overall this has been a positive experience with an improved DIFOT [delivery in full on-time] score in our first month.
“We were also able to improve our same-day dispatch promise from 12pm to 2pm and have the advantage of being able to launch our weekly deliveries within 24 hours of them being received at our facility.”