Twistshake doubled the efficiency at half the cost

Twistshake is a Swedish e-retailer that manufactures innovative baby products. Since its inception, the company has focused on expansion and making its products available worldwide.

Warehouse management systems

Visibility solution

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Twistshake scales globally with IMI

In order to meet all the logistics challenges that modern e-retailer faces, a support system that is both advanced and flexible are required. It must be able to handle several different sales channels, order types, warehouse locations and carriers. In addition, it must be possible to gradually automate functions.

For a player like Twistshake, which has traditionally developed its own solutions, it was invaluable to find a system supplier that not only understands the entire supply chain but could also help the company develop its processes. Since autumn 2021, Twistshake has been using our WMS for e-commerce, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. Based on the new warehouse and delivery management system, Twistshake can focus on making expansion and profitability go hand in hand.

Twistshake also uses IMI’s visibility solution. With an international customer base, logistics quickly became a challenge. Despite the high quality of both the products and the webshop experience, many customers lacked clear information about what happened after the purchase. Standard notifications from carriers were limited and varied between different providers, creating a gap in the customer experience.

Today, Twistshake is present in several markets across Europe and globally, with as much as 70% of sales generated outside Sweden – including key markets such as France, Germany and Spain. However, this rapid growth has also placed new demands on logistics performance and the overall customer experience.

When we were going to procure our WMS, we had as a requirement to be able to handle several order types, order flows and so on, because there is a very big difference in different types of orders. At the same time, we saw that the post‑purchase customer journey was not meeting expectations. End customers had too little visibility into their deliveries, which led to a high volume of enquiries to our customer service team. We needed better visibility for both our customers and ourselves.

Martin Åström

COO Logistic, Twistshake

Early focus on expansion

When Twistshake started its journey, they wanted to spend as little money as possible on various ancillary services. Therefore, the company developed its own OMS, and the entire inventory management was handled in Excel.

Over the years, Twistshake has added several different sales channels, such as:

E-commerce directly to the end customer
B2B sales to department stores and retail chains
Sales via local distributors around the world
Sales on major e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Zalando and eDiscount

This has meant that the logistics chain has become increasingly complex. Especially as goods from over 20 different suppliers are consolidated in their warehouse in China, before being shipped to the warehouse in Västerås. In some cases, goods can also be sent directly to different distributors from China.

The challenge

Handling a complex ecosystem

As Twistshake distributes via many different carriers, high demands are placed on the system to identify the recipients’ addresses and find the smoothest shipping solution, regardless of country.

They considered a 3PL solution, in order to outsource the logistics function, but found that it would be very costly. Instead, they chose to handle the entire logistics themselves. The challenge was to find a system that could handle their complex ecosystem with:

Several sales channels with different requirements for IT systems
Distributed warehousing with both internal and external shipping
Need for cost-effective carrier solutions worldwide
The desire to manage stock and logistics themselves
Lack of consolidated visibility across all carriers and markets
Limited ability to proactively inform end customers and provide customer service with full insight into delivery status

The solution

A partner who understands the whole picture

After evaluating various systems, the choice fell on WMS for e-commerce and visibility solution from IMI Supply Chain Solutions. During the procurement, Twistshake also received input on how they could further develop their warehouse management processes and gain increased efficiency at a lower cost.

IMI were open to developing solutions that were not part of the standard product. Another influencing factor was that the system has a modern appearance and user interface, unlike many other WMS systems on the market. IMI’s visibility solution has also given us significantly better insight into how our logistics operations perform, making us more agile when evaluating new carriers and providing us with data we can act on immediately. The implementation process was very smooth as well.

Martin Åström

COO Logistic, Twistshake

The result

A system that exceeded all expectations

In order to get a holistic view of its entire warehouse and logistics function, it was required that almost all systems be replaced. The result has exceeded expectations, with both reduced IT costs and reduced staffing requirements, while simultaneously increasing efficiency and profitability. Improved visibility has provided both customer service and logistics with greater transparency and faster decision‑making capabilities. This is a clear example of what a successful IT project should look like, according to both Twistshake and IMI.

Reduced need for personnel by approximately 70% during promotional periods
Doubled picking efficiency and reduced picking errors to close to zero
Reduced costs for IT systems through integrated overall solutions
Automatic booking of the optimal carrier for each order
Over 50% fewer pick‑up point returns thanks to automated delivery reminders
Approximately 30% fewer WISMO enquiries through clearer delivery information for end customers
Real‑time visibility enables faster, more data‑driven decision‑making

Find out more!

Visit Twistshake

Black Week tested the limits

In November 2020, just two months after implementation, it was time for the biggest shopping event of the year – Black Week. The previous year, about 50 people worked picking orders during the campaign period and each operator picked one order at a time. With IMI’s WMS for e-commerce, each operator could pick 24 orders at the same time, which increased efficiency by nearly 80% compared to 2020. Twistshake was thus able to reduce the workforce to 20-30 operators while maintaining efficiency.

With the new system, they also got better processes, which reduced the number of incorrect orders to almost zero. For this year’s Black Week, they expect to be able to reduce the workforce further. A maximum of 15 people will be able to handle the sales pressure, which is also expected to increase, compared to 2020.

In addition to reducing personnel costs, Twistshake was also able to lower its IT costs, as they reduced the number of systems. They can simply do more things in the same system with less friction. In addition, today there is increased flexibility in distribution as our WMS for e-commerce also quickly books the right carrier for each order.

Our goal is to become a one‑stop baby shop and reach more customers across more markets. Now that profitability is in place, the focus is on scaling growth. The improved insight into how our logistics operate makes us more agile when evaluating new carriers and gives us data we can act on immediately.

Martin Åström

COO Logistic, Twistshake