Capacity Revamped r.e.m. beauty’s Ecommerce Fulfillment Operation in 8 Days
Without the brand missing a beat.
Highlights
- Flexible. Capacity adapted to client deadlines and navigated unique challenges to help r.e.m. beauty relocate its ecommerce fulfillment operation in record time.
- Meticulous. Capacity ensured a successful move through situational analysis, rigorous planning and detailed project management.
- Committed. Members of the Capacity leadership team were on-site for the entire project, providing oversight, direction and real-time status.
In early 2023, Ariana Grande’s r.e.m. beauty was experiencing significant growth, fueled by social virality and launches within multiple new retailers. A pleasant challenge but a challenge nonetheless, leadership knew it needed to bolster its fulfillment operations in order to meet this new level of demand, without sacrificing short-term customer experience.
That meant this fulfillment upgrade had to happen quickly. Like 20 days quickly.
Building Out the Plan
r.e.m.’s VP of Operations, Lauren Ferguson connected with Capacity’s VP of Sales, TJ Moriarty. Together, they fleshed out the situation, defining requirements, non-negotiables, nice-to-haves, technical setups and integrations (Shopify, EDI), timelines and milestones, product volume, on-site equipment and labor needs and everything else that could impact the move.
In a few days, the Capacity team came back with a plan that condensed what typically takes 8 to 12 weeks into less than two.
“The Capacity team didn’t just ask all the right questions, they asked every question. How they plan, their thoroughness, their attention to detail… I had all the confidence in the world that they would deliver.”
Lauren Ferguson
VP of Operations | r.e.m. beauty
Extraction
Led by VP of logistics, Tony Ruiz, the Capacity project team flew out to Los Angeles and began the process of extracting r.e.m. from its Santa Clarita facility. Ordered forklifts arrived. Labor teams – both internal and agency-sourced – began taking pallets off racks, labeling and loading them. Carrier trucks showed up on time and the 50-mile journey to Capacity’s Irwindale distribution center commenced.
And just to make things a little more interesting… It snowed. In L.A. Traffic was worse than normal and the freeway shut down for a time, but the team kept its cool and kept rolling.
“In my 10-plus years working in fulfillment, I had never seen anything like this happen so quickly. A lot of that has to do with our flexibility. We’re a privately held company. There’s not much red tape when it comes to doing something this unique. We went to our CEO Jeff and our CSO Thom and said, ‘Here’s what r.e.m. needs and here’s our plan to achieve it.’ Their response was ‘Let’s do it.’”
TJ Moriarty
VP of Sales | Capacity
Setting Up Shop
As the first trucks began arriving at Capacity’s Irwindale facility, team members were standing up warehouse robotics and machinery, working on IT and making the proper integrations. The team even helped set up routers, brought in temporary printers… no task was too small.
“I’ve worked with a few 3PLs throughout my career and what Capacity did for us at the start of our relationship… That just doesn’t exist elsewhere. And that level of commitment is still there to this day.”
Lauren Ferguson
VP of Operations | r.e.m. beauty
End Result
When all the trucks had stopped rolling in and all of the product had been installed, the Capacity team had relocated over 200 different r.e.m. beauty SKUs packed into 450 pallets. Seventeen truckloads later, live ecommerce orders were up and running. But most importantly, the brand didn’t miss a beat. r.e.m. beauty customers were as happy as ever.
The entire process took just eight days. Two months later, as scheduled, r.e.m.’s B2B operation was up and running too.
Takeaway
Sometimes brands are thrown a fulfillment curveball. Having a partner that is flexible, creative, committed and literally willing to go the extra miles can make all the difference.
Here to Help
Here at Capacity, we love digging into complex fulfillment challenges. Whatever you’re up against, we want to hear about it.