Case Study: From Bottlenecks to Speed: Redeye Worldwide’s Fulfillment Transformation

Overview

Redeye Worldwide, a prominent player in physical and digital music distribution, specializes in the global distribution of LP records and merchandise worldwide with a focus on independent music artists. Operating from facilities in Hillsborough, North Carolina and Gothenburg, Sweden, Redeye caters to diverse customer segments, including direct-to-consumer, Amazon, small music shops, and larger stores featuring a combination of indie and mainstream music products. In addition to physical music products, Redeye also distributes artist merchandise such as apparel and posters as well as works on the digital side with Spotify and Apple Music to ensure their artists get on playlists and are visible within the platforms.

Benefits and Key Outcomes

Reduced order processing time from up to 5 minutes to 20 seconds

50% improvement in operational efficiency

Improved warehouse space utilization

Expanded operations without adding new staff

Industry

Music Distribution

ERP

NetSuite

Website

www.redeyeworldwide.com

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Redeye reduced order processing times with ShipHawk

Challenge

Redeye’s position as one of the last remaining distributors of physical LP records and CDs presented a unique set of challenges. Supporting approximately 800 record labels, the company wanted to add new customers and in doing so, increase potential revenue, but was constrained by limited space in its 90,000-square-foot warehouse. Overstock and slow-moving inventory also presented hurdles, especially because physical media like vinyl records are space-intensive and added complexity to Redeye’s warehouse management process.

Order processing times further complicated things in the warehouse. “We combine multiple shipments into the same box and with our previous shipping software, in some cases, it could take up to 5 minutes to process one shipment,” said Michael Howard, Associate Vice President of Global Operations at Redeye Worldwide.

Solution

Since implementing ShipHawk’s advanced shipping solution, Redeye has reduced the processing time for each shipment by 93%, from 5 minutes to less than 20 seconds. ShipHawk seamlessly integrates with NetSuite, providing Redeye the flexibility to combine multiple shipments in one box and optimize warehouse space. “We’re combining multiple fulfillments into the shipment, which was huge for us and the overall evaluation of the product,” said Howard. “Inside of NetSuite, we’re combining in some cases 10 to 15 sales orders into the same box. It’s a huge ask based on the amount of data that it requires but ShipHawk does it seamlessly.”

The ability to capture costs in real-time has been a game-changer, enabling Redeye to accurately charge for shipping and enhance both customer satisfaction and its margins. “It’s important for us as we’re charging back either our customers or our record labels to make sure that we’re able to not only charge by the correct amount, but in some cases, mark it up. So we’re actually making a little bit of margin on that as well,” said Howard.

“ShipHawk has resulted in huge operational efficiency savings for us and, in the long run, it’s allowed us to expand our warehouse without hiring additional staff,” said Howard. “We truly value the partnership with ShipHawk and I can’t say enough great things about them.”

The thing that I think is unique about ShipHawk as opposed to other kinds of software vendors that I’ve dealt with is the fact that they’re very responsive and they take the time to learn your business. Our implementation was excellent.

Michael Howard | Associate Vice President of Global Operations at Redeye Worldwide