Technology-led fulfilment enables growth for Gandys, the travel inspired fashion brand

Gandys, the travel-inspired fashion brand dedicated to doing good, has partnered with James and James Fulfilment to provide a fully outsourced, strategic, technology-led eCommerce fulfilment service to its customers. Gandys has a strong and loyal consumer base in the UK, and is currently on the path towards international expansion, particularly in the US, France and Germany. To support customers in these regions and focus on scaling the business, Gandys needed to improve operations.

Gandys has a powerful brand story, which is one of the biggest, inspiring reasons for its growth. The Gandys brothers – Rob and Paul Forkan – lost their parents in the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. In their parent’s memory and honour, they created Gandys, a travel-inspired fashion brand that is dedicated to doing good, by building kids campuses and giving back to underprivileged children around the world, with a proportion of the profits.

 

Appreciating when to outsource fulfilment 

Founded 10 years ago, Gandys has grown from strength to strength. Over the years, the brand carried out its own order fulfilment from one small room. Following strong sales during the the height of the 2020 peak trading period, Gandys grew to a point where it needed to take a more strategic and digital approach towards eCommerce fulfilment, in order to fuel ambitious growth plans. Equally, the business accepted it required greater supply chain transparency and visibility; more storage capacity for its products; and more employee resource to execute fulfilment cost effectively.

 

Technology drives fulfilment

The solution that James and James provided Gandys has included access to its cloud-based order management system, called  ControlPort. By integrating this software with Gandys’ eCommerce infrastructure, James and James provides the fashion brand with data and analytics about the state of its supply chain and fulfilment. With insight on which products are moving quickly and which are costly, it also provides an effective returns management process for consumers. To support Gandys’ international growth, James and James also built a direct integration with a platform called Global-e; which enables Gandys (and other brands) to sell to 200 countries, with 100 different currencies supported.

James and James is also solving the practical ‘shop-floor’ challenge of storing Gandys products at its Northampton-based fulfilment centre; and its team now manages and executes the picking, packing and dispatching orders to Gandys’ customers. This outsourced service includes returns management. By working together, operational teams can now turn their attention towards growing the business.

 

Preparing for international expansion

Rob Forkan, Founder, Gandys says, “At first we were reluctant about working with a fulfilment provider because it meant that we would have to release some of the control that we have over our fulfilment to another party, and we had to be certain that this would not have a detrimental impact on our brand. But, our business reached a point where it became no longer feasible to manage fulfilment inhouse, due to the number of orders we were receiving; so we had to explore our options, so that we could continue growing.

“A more strategic, technology-centric approach towards fulfilment was needed. Working with James and James has been a game changer for our business, and their SLAs (service level agreements) are fantastic. Our brand and aspirations are ambitious. We want to take our proposition into Europe and eventually the US. So this partnership is more than just about fulfilment locally, it’s a long-term commitment with a view to supporting wider growth into the US, as we sell fashion, and do good in the communities we trade in.”

 

Data-led fulfilment and supply chain transparency 

Emma Dempsey, CEO, James and James Fulfilment says: “Gandys has such a loyal community of customers. Its brand is thriving and so is its growth internationally. It’s been a fantastic privilege to work with the team and demonstrate the value that cloud applications and outsourced fulfilment can bring to the business as it grows. In today’s complex supply chains, data-led fulfilment and supply chain transparency can be used as a strategic asset to drive business growth and maintain business resilience.”

James and James has been working with Gandys since September 2021. The next phase of the relationship involves continuing to lay the foundations for wider European, and eventually, US expansion.