Who is Freedom Furniture?

Freedom Furniture is a leading Australian retailer known for its wide range of home furnishings, offering everything from small decor items to large furniture pieces. With both a robust physical store network (59 stores across Australia and New Zealand) and an online presence, they focus on delivering seamless shopping experiences across all channels.

Results at a glance

• 20% savings on freight costs in Australia over the last 12 months
• Automated fulfilment across 50+ stores and 100+ dispatch points
• Expanded carrier options in New Zealand and Australia
• Reduced cancellations and enhanced customer satisfaction
• Improved cost efficiency through multi-carrier logistics

“Shippit has been a game-changer for us, allowing us to focus on delivering great customer experiences while controlling costs.” 

- Paula Mitchell, GM of Digital 

“Shippit has done an amazing job of increasing our efficiency at a store level and also at a dropship level, and this has really increased the customer experience. It's like going from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.”

- Joshua Rich, eCommerce Operations Lead

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What challenges were Freedom experiencing?

Managing last-mile delivery for such a diverse product range posed significant challenges for Freedom. Manual processes in coordinating deliveries across multiple vendors were inefficient, leading to delays, increased costs, and occasionally poor customer experiences. Ensuring both cost efficiency and delivery reliability, particularly with large items like sofas, was a key pain point.

“As eCommerce evolves, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the last mile is exceptionally important. It’s something that can ruin a customer’s experience.”

The complexity of shipping between the North and South Islands in New Zealand also added costs and limited flexibility.

"We were having to send things with local couriers where customer experience was really compromised because we couldn’t give them things like tracking numbers."

- Joshua Rich, eCommerce Operations Lead

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The success speaks for itself

Enhanced efficiency through an ANZ multi-carrier strategy

Shippit allowed Freedom to automate their fulfilment processes and implement a multi-carrier strategy. Their platform allows Freedom to provide customers with accurate delivery options, track shipments in real-time, and select the most cost-effective or fastest shipping method based on order specifics. This level of automation reduced manual work and ensured smoother operations.

In NZ, Shippit allowed Freedom to leverage more carriers which expanded a previously restrictive parcel profile of needing to be less than two metres, which ruled out a majority of their products. Shippit facilitates tailored fulfilment operations and provides the flexibility for how Freedom fulfils orders.

"Shippit has allowed us to be a little bit more agile with our fulfilment operation in New Zealand, specifically around the multi-carrier strategy… Shippit allows us to bring on new couriers, expand our horizons, and get a much more diverse range of profiles that we can actually ship out."

- Joshua Rich, eCommerce Operations Lead

Cost-effective multi-store management

Shippit automated the entire fulfilment process, from measuring cartons to generating consignment labels and calling couriers. Shippit’s API integration enabled dynamic retrieval of shipping costs on product display pages, offering customers the most accurate and competitive delivery options. The integration with Fluent Commerce alongside Freedom’s existing systems, further streamlined operations by allowing seamless picking, packing, and dispatching within a single platform. This flexibility significantly reduced shipping costs and enhanced the overall customer experience.

"Shippit has revolutionised our logistics operations by providing a unified platform
that integrates seamlessly with our systems."

- Joshua Rich, eCommerce Operations Lead

‍Data-driven decision making

Freedom has significantly benefited from Shippit’s robust data and insights dashboards. The detailed information provided through Shippit’s portal, along with the data integrated directly from Shippit, allows Freedom to thoroughly understand their customers’ last-mile experience and manage the cost of doing business more effectively. This comprehensive data analysis supports informed decision-making and strategic planning, ensuring better operational efficiency and optimisation of business costs.

"Being able to delve into the data that Shippit has through their portal gives us the ability to really understand what’s happening with our customers’ last mile experience, and also understand the cost of doing business."

- Paula Mitchell, GM of Digital

What were the results?

The integration of Shippit transformed Freedom’s delivery operations. With automation, Freedom streamlined their processes, reducing the need for manual intervention and significantly lowering cancellations. This allowed them to deliver an enhanced customer experience while optimising logistics costs. 

Through Shippit, Freedom Furniture now operates with greater efficiency, providing their customers with a seamless delivery experience, all while keeping costs in check.

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