3PL tailors delivery to cope with vlogger-led micro-peaks

Cygnia Logistics has developed techniques to deliver on this demand.

Sean Curt, operations director explains: “The beauty industry can be driven by vloggers and celebrities demonstrating and testing products online. Their seal of approval can prompt micro-peaks in demand and we have to be set-up to quickly deliver ‘vlogger packs’ of exactly the right products if the brand is to benefit fully from these high-value social media opportunities.

“Quality control is paramount when it comes to maintaining brand integrity and security for what are often expensive products and we have installed visual monitoring systems that support our manual spot checks to provide full traceability at every stage of the process.”

Revolution Beauty is No 43 in the UK's top 100 growth companies. Cygnia started looking after its logistics from September 2018 with a 16-hour, five-days-a-week shift pattern to accommodate their predicted volumes. 

Sean explains: “Within three weeks, those orders stepped up to three-fold requiring 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cover to keep pace. Average items per order also increased by 50%.

“The SKUs in the range rose 60% which prompted the whole layout of the warehouse to change. Over the Black Friday weekend, they fulfilled ten times the normal order level in just three days.”

Nadine Neatrour, multichannel leader at Revolution Beauty adds: “Revolution is an inherently social brand. We are tagged in over 2,000 images a day from bloggers, vloggers and consumers on Instagram who want to share images of their looks. We invite vloggers and friends of the brand to create content for our channel and represent the customer around the globe. Revolution has also seen phenomenal success in creating products for and alongside vloggers.

“Our customers are extremely important to us and so to manage our rapid growth without disrupting the customer experience, we made the strategic decision to outsource our order fulfilment to an expert third party provider.

“Cygnia Logistics is a natural fit as we were looking for a fulfilment partner with a deep knowledge of the beauty and skincare sector and the capability to support the rapid growth of the brand across some 2,000 products.”

Over the past 25 years, Cygnia Logistics has helped several high-performing beauty brands, including FeelUnique, Molton Brown, Revolution Beauty and Crabtree & Evelyn, optimise both in-store and online opportunities. 

Technology has transformed retailing, forcing brands to reconsider and adapt their traditional channel strategies and Cygnia has invested more than £500,000 in its picking and fulfilment capabilities to help its beauty customers respond and make the most of omni-channel sales, 24/7.

Sean Curt adds: “The impact of eCommerce has heightened service expectations and shortened lead times. An innovative supply chain is essential to ensure brands can successfully navigate these shifting channels whilst maintaining the service experience that today’s consumers demand. 

“Our IT specialists work hard to ensure our systems are fully integrated with those of our customers in order to provide end-users with a seamlessly efficient interface, but it doesn’t stop there. Our attention to detail and our ability to create finishing touches that delight customers is paying dividends as our commitment to the beauty sector goes from strength to strength.”

Cygnia operates over 500,000 sq ft of warehousing, employing some 600 staff to deliver agile and highly responsive solutions for customers, especially during peak demand. This is particularly important for brands where such peaks can be driven by both social media influencers and seasonal events such as Black Friday.