International expansion can be exciting and challenging for many brands. For Australia’s innovative storage and organization brand, KARRICO, going global meant transitioning from developing products to managing complex inventory and logistics.
Working with Cin7 and SMB Consultants allowed KARRICO to successfully expand into new sales channels in the U.S. market while managing everything remotely from a different time zone in Australia.
KARRICO’s existing business in Australia was heavily focused on product design and development. Julian Grant, GM of Commercial Operations for KARRICO Inc.’s parent company, Grant Studios, explains that prior to the expansion his team didn’t have to manage stock, handle logistics, or project sales demand.
That said, Julian knew expanding into the U.S. would involve increasing their capabilities to include inventory and logistics management.
However, he wanted to ensure that the company’s growth didn’t overburden his existing team, which was already inundated with work. As such, Julian knew being proactive about finding the right technology partners was crucial.
Without the right software and implementation, he explains, “You just end up creating more work manually…We needed to make sure we didn’t add too much stress to the business we have right now.”
Julian’s introduction to Jeff Atizado, the CEO of SMB Consultants, was facilitated by The Hope Factory, the agency responsible for designing and building KARRICO’s Shopify site. This meeting was pivotal for Julian, as it offered an opportunity to collaborate with Jeff in finding the ideal inventory solution for KARRICO, ensuring its effective implementation and optimization. KARRICO’s needs included:
KARRICO also wanted software that could handle a diverse bill of materials and accurately calculate the cost of their products.
After meeting with Julian, Jeff recommended Cin7 Omni as the comprehensive inventory solution to empower KARRICO to grow without additional manual work.
Cin7 Omni proved to be a powerful solution that could handle KARRICO’s new 3PL integrations, easily calculate diverse costs, and generate precise figures for freight costs and volumes, enabling KARRICO to use accurate business data to inform their decisions.
During the implementation and execution process, Julian found that the key to success was the combination of Cin7 Omni’s well-integrated platform and the guidance he received from SMB Consultants.
Working with SMB Consultants allowed KARRICO to get their new inventory implementation right the first time and realize the value of Cin7 faster than they would have on their own.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” says Julian. He goes on to explain that SMB Consultants “helped navigate us through the best way to achieve what we were trying to achieve through the software and help us configure those workflows. That was critical to us.”
With a custom Cin7 Omni integration enabled by SMB Consultants, KARRICO can operate with a centralized hub, transferring stock to different fulfillment centers and getting live inventory updates. That let them manage the new business remotely from Australia and sleep soundly, trusting Cin7 to keep inventory running smoothly at the U.S. warehouses.
“Having really sophisticated software and being able to basically key orders directly from Australia in our own time, and manage all branch transfers and workflows is absolutely critical since we don’t have a lot of crossover time with our fulfillment centers and with our warehouse,” says Julian.
One of the main benefits of Cin7 Omni is the high level of customization it offers. With Cin7, KARRICO was able to tailor their tech stack to fit a sophisticated logistics model and enable smooth operations.
Julian cites SMB Consultants as critical for helping KARRICO understand the capabilities of software like Cin7 and tailor it to “optimize workflows…and optimize the goals and the value that you’re going to get out of that system.”
“Because the workflow had to deal with lots of different elements to that calculation like customs duties and tariffs, but also at the same time managing the volumetric size of the products that we were shipping and factoring that into the calculation, we were asking a lot. To have that expert knowledge from SMB Consultants to design that workflow has been incredible,” explains Julian.
When asked about Cin7 Omni, Julian noted, “It’s so feature-rich and has such brilliant architecture and integration capabilities that are open to do whatever it is that you want to achieve out of the system.”
Looking forward, Julian sees even more potential working with Cin7 and SMB Consultants, explaining that “As the business grows, we want to implement more and more features and solutions… We see it as a critical partnership that’s ongoing.”
Put simply, the Cin7 Omni solution and partnership with SMB Consultants is what enabled KARRICO to grow. “If we didn’t have this system, we wouldn’t be able to scale,” says Julian.
What’s amazing to Julian is how Cin7 Omni and SMB Consultants worked with him to achieve his goal of scaling the business without adding extra manual work. Julian says, “We haven’t added any staff at all to manage this new business…which is a completely new venture in a new country, a completely new business model that we’ve never done before.”
KARRICO can maximize its supply chain and margins and automate operations for less stress and better results. As Julian puts it, “This has given us the confidence to scale and not to worry about whether we’ll be able to handle the growth.”
If you’re ready to scale your business and enable seamless growth today, explore Cin7 Omni.
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