Chairzone achieved a 75% hike in efficiency with PITS.

Their shipping partner was responsible for collecting products from different warehouse locations and delivering them to customers. This involved manual checks for stock availability, alerting the shipping partner, managing inventory manually, and finally, delivering the stocks to customers. The whole process was time-consuming and prone to errors, which was a major issue for Chairzone. 

Solution
After analyzing Chairzone's requirements, we suggested several solutions to help them solve their challenges. We recommended building a new e-commerce platform from scratch that would offer a more personalized experience to their customers. Additionally, we proposed a separate web application to automate warehouse management, which would enable employees of all levels to access the admin side and seamlessly integrate inventory management. We also suggested Chairzone adopt a virtual warehouse concept to improve inventory management and a rental program for chair rentals. 

The E-commerce Platform
We developed a fully responsive e-commerce platform for Chairzone using Magento v2.4.1 with PHP 7.4.9 and MySQL 5.7 as the database. The website is hosted on a managed dedicated server, ensuring optimal performance and security. We utilized HTML 5, CSS 3, and jQuery 1.12.4 to create an engaging and seamless user experience.  

Customers can browse through different chair brands, search and filter chairs, add chairs to cart, or place orders to buy chairs. From the landing page of each brand, customers can download a PDF document detailing the features of the brand. They can also view offers, discounts, and coupons through the platform. 

The website is also synced with the warehouse management platform in the backend, allowing for real-time updates on stock availability and automatic alerts to the shipping partner. 

Warehouse Management
The warehouse management system was integrated with a web app, which enabled Chairzone to streamline and automate many of their warehouse processes, such as managing inventory levels, automating purchase orders, and tracking product movement throughout the warehouse. 

Stock Management
When a product is created through the web app, the quantity added will be assigned to the main warehouse. This means that the inventory level for that product in the warehouse will be updated. 

When a customer places an order for that product, the ordered quantity will be reserved against the main warehouse i.e, it won't be available for sale to other customers until that order is fulfilled. 

At the same time, the system will also reduce the available quantity for that product in the warehouse, which means that the quantity available for sale to other customers will be decreased. When the shipment is confirmed, the quantity will be reduced from the reservation and the reservation will be cleared. If the order is cancelled, the reserved quantity will be removed without reducing the main quantity. 

Shipping Management
We also implemented an XML file system for shipping management. When items are ready, we send an XML file to the shipment partner, Planzer. They continuously listen to XML (folders) every five minutes and handles the necessary processes for shipment handling. They go to the warehouse and collect the stuff, and after that, they provide a response back to our system in similar XML format. Based on which, we send tracking info to the customer. 

Virtual Warehouse
Chairzone automatically generates a purchase order to the supplier whenever a product's stock falls below a specific threshold. The order is delivered within a few days from the initial request. However, if a customer places an order for more products than what is available in stock during this time, we implemented a virtual warehouse concept to display how much stock is currently available and when the rest will be available. 

If a customer places an order, the available threshold value can be delivered, but the rest will only be delivered once the stocks arrive. This approach enabled Chairzone to manage their inventory more efficiently while maintaining transparent communication with their customers about the availability of products. 

Rental Program
We implemented a rental program where customers can rent out furniture, which Magento doesn't have by default. With a minimum rental period of 365 days, Chairzone could offer their customers a more flexible option, which helped them to generate more revenue. 

Pricing and Coupons
We assisted Chairzone in displaying their actual and special pricing to their customers, enabling them to see the exact amount of discount they are receiving. In addition, Chairzone could create coupons from Magento backend and attract more customers, ultimately leading to increased sales. 

Technology

• E-commerce platform: Magento v2.4.1 

• Programming language: PHP 7.4.9 

• Database management system: MySQL 5.7 

• Front-end web technologies: CSS 3, HTML 5, jQuery 1.12.4 

• Development environment: PhpStorm 

• Payment methods: Datatrans Payment, Ideal Payment (Invoice) 

Conclusion
ChairZone's case is a great example of how digitalization can positively impact a business. By automating and digitizing their manual processes, ChairZone was able to achieve a significant increase in efficiency, which translated into better productivity and cost savings. This also allowed the company to have better control over their operations, resulting in improved quality and customer satisfaction.