Case Study
Birkenstock digital
The task
Operational setup of international online brand shop.
The direct-to-consumer business was built on the international greenfield, starting with a new system infrastructure, moving on to assortment strategy, setting up end customer processes to the international supply chain and creation of a professional team.
For more than 2 years, opexxia has supported us in the development and expansion of further sales channels, product divisions and optimisation of existing structures. Most of all I value the pragmatic, honest and purposeful work of the colleagues. It’s not just talking, it’s doing!
Oliver Reichert
CEO Birkenstock Group
Milestone
eCommerce WOPIS* setup for the complete business area “Purchase2Pay”
Previous structures in the main process of Purchase2Pay were 100% geared to Birkenstock’s B2B business. Establishing an international online shop brought with it new questions and challenges, including product range design, sales monitoring and quantity planning.
Concrete implementation examples along WOPIS* – excerpt:
- Workflows – introduction of ticket systems for optimal operational supply planning from headquarters to e-commerce warehouses; introduction of KPI-based inventory and reorder management
- Organisations – clear demarcation of tasks in product range design, sales monitoring and volume planning between the head office and the digital team, including setting up the allocation of these responsibilities; iImplementation of regional organisational structure for needs-based local management of the product ranges
- Processes – design and implementation of planning processes “from production to availability in the online shop” as well as the return-to-vendor process
- Interfaces – setting up and implementing interfaces between existing central systems and new digital systems (e.g. product data exchange, availability data exchange)
- Systems – introduction of a category planning tool to optimally build digital distribution channels and a PIM system for refining product data for direct sales
Milestone
Organisational structure for international online business
In addition to the new procedural and systemic issues, the development of the international online business brought with it new requirements regarding positions, organisational structure and talents. Rapid growth and expansion were the key challenges to building the right organisation.
Together with the management team, opexxia has worked out the complete organisational structure down to the last detail. Each position and its responsibilities within the overall achievement of the goals was analysed and described in the position and in the role. In addition to this conceptual work, opexxia was also accompanied by operational recruiting at key positions.
Milestone
Roll-Out Japan / China
Following the digital professionalization of the core markets of Europe and the USA, the rollout to Japan and China was driven forward.
Birkenstock’s digital office in Munich commissioned opexxia to find the right service providers for the supply chain in country, B2C logistics on site, customer service, payment as well as finance and accounting, and to connect the services to the global online shop. The relevant services were advertised, contractually negotiated and implemented accordingly. Result: every Birkenstock package sent in Japan goes through the processes set up by opexxia. For the Chinese market, the supply chain in the country, B2C logistics on site and adjacent processes were also set up by opexxia. In both countries, opexxia also supported the team’s recruiting on the ground.
Concrete implementation examples along WOPIS* – excerpt:
- Workflows – introduction of workflows in Order2Cash and Purchase2Pay processes
- Organisation – creation of clear task differentiation between digital headquarters and Asian hubs
- Processes – design and Implementation of Order2Cash and Purchase2Processes according to local circumstances, including tendering, negotiation, implementation of local service providers
- Interfaces – set up and implement interfaces between central systems and new local digital systems
- Systems – introduction/start-up of completely new local system landscapes
Conclusion
Thanks to its online shop, Birkenstock is now represented in more than 27 countries and supplies end users directly with ist most popular products. A success story!