Retailers today grapple with an array of operational challenges, from fragmented inventory systems to escalating freight costs and inefficient manual processes. For expansive, multi-brand businesses, these hurdles amplify, threatening profitability and growth. Rolla’s, an Australian denim label, found itself at such a crossroads and sought transformative solutions to unlock inventory, streamline fulfilment, and elevate customer experience.
Rolla’s adopted a ship-from-store strategy, turning its nine retail locations into local fulfilment hubs. This approach allowed the brand to bring previously “dead stock” — inventory sitting idle in stores — into active circulation, reducing distance to customers and boosting delivery speed. Achieving this required enhanced visibility over inventory and more efficient fulfilment and delivery capabilities. To this end, Rolla’s partnered with Brauz and Shippit. Brauz’s platform bridged the gap between online and offline inventory, offering real-time stock insights across stores. Shippit complemented this by intelligently routing orders to the nearest available store with stock and optimising carrier selection through automated shipping rules factoring in weight, dimensions, and parcel count.
During peak demand periods, this ship-from-store execution proved critical, with up to 30% of Rolla’s daily orders fulfilled from stores — double their usual rate. Operationally, the strategy halved the pick-and-pack time in stores and reduced non-stock issues by 75%, alleviating pressure on frontline teams. Moreover, cost control was a standout benefit; by assigning the most efficient and economical carriers, Rolla’s cut freight costs by about 10%, a significant saving amid tight unit economics.
Customer experience enhancements were equally significant. In today’s market, delivery transparency is as valued as speed. By utilising Shippit’s real-time tracking capabilities, Rolla’s customers gained full visibility over their order journey from checkout to doorstep. This transparency reduced inquiries related to “Where Is My Order” (WISMO), order reassignments, and refunds, enabling customer service teams to focus on other priorities. Improved delivery experiences contributed to higher customer satisfaction (CSAT), increased loyalty, and greater repeat purchase rates for the brand.
The underlying success for Rolla’s hinged on operational integration and strategic inventory utilisation. Brauz’s system supports complex inventory distribution, enabling fulfilment from multiple store locations with automated buffers to protect stock integrity while maximising sellable inventory. Meanwhile, Shippit’s shipping automation platform provides centralised control, managing over 100 carriers and applying sophisticated shipping rules to balance cost, speed, and efficiency seamlessly across omnichannel operations.
Industry insights underline why the ship-from-store approach resonates strongly. It enables retailers to keep freight costs down, reduce cart abandonment by speeding up delivery, improve inventory turnover, and minimise deadstock—all while offering the fulfilment flexibility today’s consumers demand. Studies note that more than two-thirds of customers prioritise convenient fulfilment options such as buying online with store pickup or same-day delivery, conditions that ship-from-store models fulfil adeptly.
For Rolla’s, their strategic embrace of ship-from-store has yielded tangible and lasting benefits: operational efficiency, cost savings, and a premium delivery experience that drives retention and trust. Their success story exemplifies how retailers can rethink traditional supply chains, leveraging their physical store networks digitally to boost competitiveness in a challenging retail environment.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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