Strengthen Your Cross-Channel Capabilities

Moosejaw is a Midwestern retailer that specializes in extreme outdoor equipment and apparel. When Moosejaw opened its doors in 1992, it sought to provide customers with a superior experience with true cross-channel integration. The retailer operates seven brick-and-mortar stores as well as e-commerce and catalog channels. Yet, the lack of integration among the channels caused inventory and communication problems for the retailer. Moosejaw Founder, Robert Wolfe, and Director of IT, Chris Johnson, knew that in order to improve inventory visibility and a customer-centric experience, they would have to move all customer interactions to a single platform.

When Moosejaw started its e-commerce platform in 1995, it did well with fulfilling orders and tracking inventory despite the lack of channel integration. "When we started our e-commerce platform, I used to go from store to store with a Visa machine and a phone," says Wolfe. "As I went from store A to store B, I would call the phone company and ask them to switch our Internet line to our 1-800 number to ring at the store to which I had just arrived. Also, I would have the phone company switch the Internet line to my home telephone line when I went home for the night. If you called Moosejaw at 3 a.m., my brother or I answered the call and took your order." Wolfe explains that while this procedure worked, it was cumbersome and risked inefficiency.

Increase Inventory Visibility, Avoid Cancelled Sales
Wolfe shipped products from the stores, as each store was also a small warehouse. "It was great because we could have one product and sell it to multiple customers, either in-store or online, which minimized our inventory risk," says Johnson. "The downside was that if we had only one product left and a customer purchased that product at a store and 5 minutes later someone ordered that same product online, we had an obvious problem, which resulted in cancelled orders. We managed inventory among the channels manually, and we couldn't always update information quickly enough. This was especially problematic during the holiday shopping season." Indeed, other than Moosejaw brand products, most of what the retailer sells can be purchased elsewhere. If customers found that items were out of stock on Moosejaw's website, they may have gone elsewhere to purchase the product.

In 2008, Moosejaw chose to end its inventory problems by integrating Web and store data. After completing an RFP, the retailer chose a cross-channel retail solution using IBM WebSphere Commerce and Cross Channel Retail Solution from CrossView. IBM WebSphere Commerce is the commerce engine that supports the website and each channel. Cross Channel Retail Solution is the POS product that operates and supports the retail stores. CrossView ripped and replaced the retailer's in-store POS software with its own software. The entire process, from RFP to development to training to installation, took 15 months. The vendor flipped the switch and transitioned the technology overnight. The software integrates with the retailer's backend ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, as it handles fulfillment and credit card settlement.

Moosejaw has reaped several benefits due to CrossView's solution. The Moosejaw multichannel experience integrates and registers orders and inventory changes for every channel, offering increased visibility and resource allocation across channels. The retailer has real-time inventory visibility across all channels, enabling Moosejaw to reduce out-of-stocks. Real-time inventory allows associates to locate and fulfill an order from an alternate store, warehouse, or drop ship vendor. The multichannel capability also provides Moosejaw's in-store sales associates and call center agents with the tools they need to provide more interactive and insightful support to customers. Now the retailer has one view of its customers, their orders, and profile data. This centralized customer database, shared by all channels, also provides a means for customer returns in any channel.