Flexibility in the last mile
Scalable logistics without additional complexity or costs
The Hans Anders eyewear chain is a household name in the Dutch retail market. Since 1982, they have been offering exceptional quality at unexpectedly low prices. Hans Anders opened its first store in Belgium in 1983 and, in 2020, has a total of 400 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium. Hans Anders operates from Gorinchem, where we spoke with logistics manager Dik Hoogenes.
The challenge
Two years ago, we wanted to offer our customers an extra service by automatically delivering a package of contact lenses and solutions through their letterbox every three months. Orders were sent as standard letterbox post, both for the Netherlands and Belgium.
"Postbox shipments are not traceable by default. To gain more insight into the progress of a shipment, we had to switch to a different delivery service. This was not only our wish, but the request also arose from the needs of our customers."
"Adding a new shipping option and carrier has implications for many parts of the business, including managing different closing times, determining when to use which shipping option, different shipping labels and track & trace information."
"To make this possible, we needed to integrate the new shipping option into our back-end SAP system. And because we wanted to guarantee the flexibility to change delivery options at any time, we were reluctant to use custom integrations for one, two or three different carriers."
The solution
Hans Anders consulted with several companies, and Wuunder emerged as the winner. Wuunder offers the option of setting up the back-end first and tackling the front-end later. In addition, we were able to link Wuunder to SAP at the back end of our process, ensuring an efficient process for selecting the right carrier and delivery option based on order variables. To make this possible, Wuunder developed a handy delivery matrix. Within Wuunder, we can configure business rules based on variables such as location and order weight. This saves us a tremendous amount of time.
"The Wuunder delivery matrix works very well for us. We use the Wuunder matrix to determine the best delivery option for each shipment. When we create an order in SAP, SAP sends a message to Wuunder, which then calculates which matrix the order falls into and which underlying delivery services apply. A label is then printed from SAP and Wuunder sends the advance notification to the carrier.
Wuunder offers a controlled process that we hardly have to worry about. This is crucial for us, given the large number of shipments we send to our customers.”
The benefits of working with Wuunder:
What does the future hold for Hans Anders? And how do you think Wuunder can play a role in this?
"Wuunder has given us easy access to new carriers and their underlying services. By implementing Wuunder Checkout, we have been able to achieve significant savings on our transport costs.
The great thing about Wuunder is that it gives us a complete overview of all shipments to our customers. This means that our customer service team no longer has to check the websites of the various carriers for updates. They only need to consult the Wuunder overview to see the status of all orders. This also results in certain savings and, above all, a pleasant and efficient way of working."
In the future, we also want to pay more attention to delivery in our webshop. We can clearly see the advantages of this. We believe that we should offer our customers the option of choosing the delivery option that suits them best during the purchasing process.
Hans Anders wants to expand further within Europe. What that growth will look like and in which countries it will take place is still uncertain.
Inspired by Hans Anders and ready to automate your shipping process?
We'd love to demonstrate how we can bring logistical flexibility and clarity to your delivery process.