Mamas & Papas

Founded in 1981 Mamas & Papas (M&P) is now one of the UK’s largest retailers of baby products from clothing to furniture. The company was born out of a desire to better meet the needs of new parents, offering them the best choice of products and a personal shopping experience to suit their lifestyle. Establishing this trust and putting the customer at the heart of their operations is core to the brand.

So it’s hardly surprising that they also decided to turn delivery on its head – starting with the customer delivery experience and working back up the chain. CIO for M&P, Chris Greenwood, shares how they achieved it with some help from GFS.

“GFS gives us the tools, delivery services and prices we need to offer customers the widest choice of delivery options at the checkout and quickly add, remove or change them as we need. As a result, we’ve seen cart abandonment rates dramatically reduce and customer satisfaction scores go up.”

Chris Greenwood, Chief Information Officer, Mamas & Papas

M&P needed an eCommerce delivery service to support a complex and diverse product range

M&P was recommended to GFS more than 10 years ago by one of their carriers. They wanted an eCommerce delivery solution that could address the complexity and range of shipping solutions needed for such a diverse product range – 13,500 items from tiny baby-grows to big, bulky cots, buggies and nursery equipment, across 10 major product categories. They also wanted a partner to lean on for advice and insight when they needed it.

GFS Checkout is a one-time integration that allows choice and control over current and future delivery options

Being able to offer customers a choice of delivery to suit their lifestyles was important. However, having built their own inhouse Warehouse Management System (WMS), it required significant IT time and effort to change the delivery options available on the website.

To overcome this, M&P implemented GFS Checkout. This enabled better choice of delivery options but with a much easier integration between the M&P WMS and online store. Pre-configured with 1000+ delivery options, GFS Checkout gives M&P control of their delivery options via their own Management Console, so that adding, removing or switching services has become as simple as flicking a switch. GFS Checkout’s intelligent rules engine personalises delivery to present the most efficient and costeffective options based on the customer’s order and address location.

Changes to delivery can be made quickly without unnecessary cost and effort

GFS Checkout combined with GFS Managed Parcel services has given M&P the flexibility to offer customers delivery options at competitive commercial rates, with services including Click and Collect, Collect in Store, Named Day and Timed delivery slots. System changes which previously took weeks and months, now take just hours, allowing them to make changes quickly and easily without unnecessary IT burden and cost.

The ‘Collect in Store’ option has increased footfall in stores, contributing to stronger brand engagement and more sales.

GFS Selector has dramatically increased speed and efficiency at packing stations

M&P have also replaced multiple labelling systems with a single multi-carrier despatch platform, GFS Selector. The XML integration connects to the M&P WMS, providing an instant label library for over 1000 carrier services, printing at a rate of up to 50,000 an hour, for any combination of carriers. This has dramatically increased speed and efficiency at packing stations for faster, smoother despatch.

“For us the true value of GFS to our business is the trust of knowing that we have them as a sounding board when it really matters. Being able to tap into their knowledge & industry insight gives us the confidence that we’re making the right delivery decisions for our customers and our business.”

Chris Greenwood, Chief Information Officer, Mamas & Papas

M&P’s customer care team can also track and trace parcels across all carriers through online tracking portal, GFS Seeker. This is backed by GFS’s own Customer Care team, who proactively track consignments and deal directly with carriers, to resolve any parcel issues before they impact the customer. This has resulted in lower call centre volumes and dramatic improvements in customer satisfaction scores.

Insights which allow greater control and agility

GFS Reportor provides M&P with a single dashboard for providing key analytics including parcel volumes, geographical split and carrier performance. These are presented in a series of responsive graphs and charts, which enable the team to proactively make informed decisions and take action to ensure performance levels are met at an operational level.

At a strategic level, Chris and his team value having GFS to advise on their eCommerce shipping strategy and tap into wider industry expertise and know-how. Never was this more important than when M&P were able to head off a potential disaster when their biggest carrier was about to go into liquidation at the height of the peak Christmas period. Luckily for M&P, they got an early warning from GFS and with their guidance, were able to switch to new carriers without any negative impact.

A single eCommerce delivery partner that has brought their vision to life

Customer preferences change and so do carrier costs and performance levels, so businesses need to have access to scope of delivery services and technology tools to respond accordingly. Being able to find all of this, and more, through a single delivery partner like GFS has helped M&P achieve far greater operational agility and efficiency, bringing to life their vision of a seamless customer experience.

“GFS has helped us achieve our goal to deliver a relevant and consistent delivery experience to every customer, every time. From checkout, to doorstep – and everything in between.”

Chris Greenwood, Chief Information Officer, Mamas & Papas