Lulu Guinness
“Product creation is built within Zedonk. All product information, costings, wholesale and retail are housed within one system."
Quintessentially British, Lulu Guinness is an iconic handbag brand with a rich heritage - as the originator of witty, playful bags to place proudly on the table, not on the floor. After the success of the Florist Basket, introduced in 1993, and now part of the V&A’s permanent fashion exhibition, the brand has become a household name.
As a prominent brand in the fashion industry for decades, it was only in recent years they decided to overhaul internal processes with the help of software and technology to streamline the day-to-day running of the business. With no back-end system in place to manage the development of new products and the bill of materials, the team had to fulfil tasks using a combination of clunky Excel spreadsheets. Tired of the painful, manual way of recording and capturing data, the team reviewed their way of working and decided to implement Zedonk.
“Prior to Zedonk, product creation, cost management, and reporting were all done in Excel. It was time-consuming admin to keep records up to date without data entry errors. There was duplication of work depending on the different facets of the business.”
Replacing Excel with Zedonk means no more capricious formulas or having to scroll through endless rows and columns, product data is saved under one roof. “Product creation is built within Zedonk. All product information, costings, wholesale and retail are housed within one system.” Not only does Zedonk store product information, but it also gives a broad overview of their material library and inventory, allowing the team to easily monitor and track purchase orders.
“Zedonk makes the rest of the business less reliant on manual updates from team members, they can access data live and direct thanks to the exchange between systems.”
Already having NetSuite, Shopify, and a Warehouse Management System in place, the next step was to allow all the disparate systems to talk to one another and share data. Lulu Guinness enlisted the help of Excellent Zephyr, retail technology experts who build, implement, and manage bespoke tech stacks for fashion brands to integrate all of their existing systems.
Knowing exactly what they wanted to achieve, the project was based on five design principles: use industry-standard integration tools, automate business processes, reduce manual intervention, a scalable and flexible cloud-based solution, and clean data for BI reporting.
Following Excellent Zephyr’s eCommerce Blueprint, the link between systems was created by using Patchworks, a leading integration platform for fast-growing retail. Data is now synchronised, with no need for time-consuming manual exports or imports. “Using the Patchworks platform, we can pull product information and sales orders from Zedonk into NetSuite and then to our WMS which supports the sales order fulfilment process.”
Integrating systems can seem daunting and brands often don’t know where to start, which is why it can be easier to enlist the help of specialist experts. “We have worked with Zedonk’s integrations team to develop this; they have been supportive and responsive throughout the project. As the team gets more familiar with the system, further questions come up that can be answered directly with the Client Success team.”
“It makes the rest of the business less reliant on manual updates from team members, they can access their data requirements live and direct thanks to the data exchange between systems.” By being able to integrate systems, efficiency within teams has been boosted and data is easily accessible to make effective decisions, saving time and minimising error.
