Rural King Case Study from the Omnichannel Retail Summit

1. Welcome!
Welcome to the Omnichannel Retail Summit

2. Magento solutions partner with an all-in-house team based in
Dallas and Europe
Led by Magento Master, Joshua Warren
Providing cutting-edge, complete commerce solutions

3. Our Omnichannel Experience
Ten years in business, focused completely on the intersection of commerce
and technology
One of the only agencies in the United States to complete a Magento Order
Management implementation
The only agency in the southwest to complete an Order Management
implementation, as well as a number of other distinctions

4. Why We’re Here Today
Customers don’t shop like they did 10 years ago
Most stores still provide the same basic experience as 10 years ago
Your customers will leave and drive you out of business

5. Avoiding Commerce Extinction
October 2017, I gave a presentation titled ‘Avoiding Commerce Extinction:
Lessons from Retail Dinosaurs’
Focused on 7 very large, established retailers - like Toys R Us
Since October, five of the seven are out of business
The remaining 2 closed a combined total of over 1,00 stores to survive

6. Key Takeaways from the Retail Dinosaurs
Have the technology to move fast
Fully commit to the changes you make
Meet consumers on their terms

7. Let’s Look at a Retailer That Gets It
Rural King
110 stores and growing at a rate of 20 new stores per year
Amazing, sustainable growth across all key metrics both online & in-store
Buying up failed big box store buildings and succeeding in them

8. Rural King’s Challenge to Creatuity

9. It’s All About the Customer
Provide the right product the right way at the right time
Drive cost-savings in both operational efficiencies and in shipping costs
Make it easier for customers to find what they want and buy it quickly

10. The Existing Challenges
Inventory data is stored in 3 different systems, one of which is a decades-old
version of Epicor Eagle.
Multiple different shipping systems & fulfillment processes
Too many vendors and systems, most of which didn’t communicate

11. The Customer Experience, Pre-Launch
Tens of thousands of products weren’t selling due to poor manufacturer-provided
product data that was never improved
Two separate websites selling different aspects of the product catalog
No simple way to shop from a mobile device - not even responsive

12. Customer Experience Possibilities
Rural King has a network of hundreds of suppliers
Their own fleet of trucks providing daily fulfillment runs to every store
Stores positioned strategically through the Midwest and Florida

13. Fly the coop!
‘Extreme Chicken Barn’
599 pounds
9’ x 12’
Previously required freight shipping
Now available to pick up free at any
Rural King store through a fully
automated process

14. A Little Help From My Friends

15. This Isn’t a One Person Project
Such a large transformation required a complete overhaul and replacement of
numerous systems
Creatuity recommended best in class solutions for each need identified by
Rural King
We relied heavily on these partners to successfully transform Rural King’s
business

16. Some of the Partners We Involved
Magento Commerce Cloud, Magento Order Manager
Akeneo Product Information Manager
ShipStation for Shipping Automation
PayPal for their PayPal Express Checkout flow

17. Technology Selection Criteria
Technologies with a strong foundation that still allowed room for customization
High ROI through improved efficiencies as well as reasonable platform pricing
Proven in other projects

18. What This Group Accomplished
For less than the cost to implement just the ecommerce functionality of competing
enterprise commerce platforms, we completed and deployed:
Modern ecommerce experience
Product information manager
Highly automated omnichannel fulfillment
In nine months

19. Initial Results

20. Simplified, Automated Product Creation
New products available from each supplier are added to the system
automatically via LogicBroker
Those products are added to Akeneo automatically, where a merchandiser
reviews and approves them
Approved products then flow automatically to the website, complete with
inventory information

21. Improved Product Assortment
By automating product creation and managing inventory and order routing,
Rural King is able to reach their goal of expanding their product assortment
10X
Magento Business Intelligence integration helps with fast reporting to
determine which areas of the product assortment should be expanded next

22. Improved Time to Market
Once a product is added to Akeneo, it can appear on the website in as little as
15 minutes
Inventory values on the website are refreshed continuously
When a store receives a shipment of a product, that inventory is available for
purchase online within 15 minutes

23. Improved Delivery Options
Customers can have their orders shipped to them, or pick them up locally
Customers see exactly how many of each product are available based on their
delivery option, which can account for supplier, store and warehouse
inventories
Magento Order Manager obtains products from suppliers via dropshipping or
scheduled fulfillment runs, completely automatically

24. Improved Shipping Processes
Instead of fulfilling from one or two centralized warehouses, orders route to the
store nearest the customer
This allows low-cost shipping methods to be used while still providing next-day
delivery that customers expect
When a customer has an urgent need for an item, they can pick it up same day
from their local store

25. Improved Store Associate Experience
Store associates can look up a customer’s order, no matter the type, and
provide the latest status
Tablet-friendly interfaces for all ship-from-store, store pickup and order status
functions make it easy for store associates to learn the system
Thanks to ShipStation being integrated directly into Order Manager, shipping
labels are produced with a single click - no carrier software needed

26. Improved Warehouse Experience
Eliminated all remaining paper processes
Warehouse can click one button to indicate an inventory error and reroute the
order to another warehouse or store automatically, replacing a call to a
manager and customer service

27. Improved Customer Experience
No need to call the store to check inventory levels
Order tracking information updates instantaneously, no matter if the order is
shipped by a warehouse, a store or a supplier
Customers can place a single order for delivery via multiple methods and track
it all via one combined order number

28. Agile Foundation for Improvements
All of the previous items were completed in the initial nine month
implementation
We’re already on to the next round of features
Further blending and blurring the online and in-store experience through things
like buy-online, pay-in-store

29. What It’s All About
Have the technology to move fast
Fully commit to the changes you make
Meet consumers on their terms

30. How to Implement All of This in Nine Months at
Your Company

31. Gather a Team
Gather a team internally across all departments - store operations, fulfillment,
merchandising, web/IT
Engage a company experienced with the platforms you select
Plan to spend a week together mapping out systems, processes and workflows

32. Expect the Unexpected
Inventory challenges, inaccurate product data, slow legacy systems - this
project will expose them all
View this as an opportunity to identify further improvements

33. Build Internal Excitement & Training
Several months before the completion of the project, showcase the new site
internally
Allow everyone, especially store associates, time to become familiar with the
new systems

34. Learn from Our Experience
Don’t hesitate to ask questions, today or in the future, of me or anyone on the
Creatuity team about our experience with these omnichannel transformations
We routinely do things that no one has ever done before, and love to share our
experience and knowledge from these projects
If you’re local, come to one of our Dallas Ecommerce meetups to learn more as
well

35. Questions?
@JoshuaSWarren / @Creatuity on Twitter
Creatuity.com
214-810-5005