Case Study:
Springfield Leather
Overview
Artisanal leather manufacturing is a family affair for Kevin Hopkins, a former aspiring
musician who found a new love in leather crafting while hunting for the perfect guitar
strap. The opportunity of a lifetime arrived in 1999 when Hopkins purchased the Tandy
Leather Store in Springfield, Missouri, and the Springfield Leather Company was born.
The business, which now has two generations working behind the counter, has one
location with a warehouse that supports 20,000 SKUs and a vibrant eCommerce
platform with 8,300 SKUs. Springfield Leather supports the leather crafting process from
start to finish with dozens of premium leather materials, threads, sewing machines,
digital patterns and accessories.
Benefits and Key Outcomes
Seamless integration with NetSuite ERP and NetSuite SuiteCommerce
Reduced order processing from 30 minutes to mere seconds
Automated, accurate shipping rates in eCommerce cart
Challenge
As order volume increased and Springfield Leather prepared for the next stage of growth, it realized it could no longer afford
long lead times on order processing or a lack of automation in its fulfillment process. The company implemented NetSuite ERP
and the NetSuite SuiteCommerce eCommerce shopping cart module in 2016, but its previous shipping solution’s integration was
lackluster and it had limited options for customization without intensive IT or development resources.
Springfield Leather initiated the search for a new shipping solution that not only integrated seamlessly with NetSuite and
SuiteCommerce, but also featured a user-friendly interface that didn’t require additional IT or development support. The perfect
solution needed to offer accurate multi-carrier rating in the shopping cart, automation via dynamic business logic and exceptional
customer support. It found everything it needed and more in ShipHawk’s shipping software for NetSuite.
Solution
With ShipHawk in place, Springfield Leather now enjoys the benefits of a fully integrated ecosystem where information is passed
between its ERP, shipping and eCommerce shopping cart solutions in real-time. The days of waiting 30 minutes to two hours to
process orders are over, and so is the risk of shipping out duplicate orders or failing to satisfy next-day shipping requests.
As soon as an order is placed in their shopping cart and synced to NetSuite, it also automatically syncs to ShipHawk. “The order
fulfillment process is automated, immediate and anyone on our team can do it,” said Anthony Williams, Digital Media Coordinator
at Springfield Leather. “One of the cool things with ShipHawk is that within seconds, we have real-time reporting on what’s been
put into the system.”
“ShipHawk is very good at being able to sync order details in real-time as well as the ability to set up rules to guide the customer
as to what shipping methods they can and cannot choose,” said Williams. Springfield Leather’s goods come in all shapes and sizes
and it leverages ShipHawk’s dynamic business rules to automate the rating and fulfillment process, whether a customer is ordering
premium leather by the foot, flammable items or even digital downloads.
“One of the most useful features is the ability to apply rating rules and shipping policies in ShipHawk and have that affect the rates
that populate to the customer in our SuiteCommerce shopping cart,” said Williams.
The company uses rating rules to remove certain shipping options, such as next-day shipping for flammables that require ground
transport, and carrier masking to ensure the best possible checkout experience. Customers only have to select how quickly they
want their order and ShipHawk and SuiteCommerce handle the rest, including processing the order in real time, providing accurate
rates and enabling a transparent fulfillment process from the shopping cart to the customer’s doorstep.
One of the best things with ShipHawk is that within seconds, we have real-time reporting on what’s been put
into the system.