Fanatics Streamlines Communication, Improves Task Visibility
The sports apparel and fan gear retailer turned to Reflexis Real-Time Task Manager™ to consolidate and synchronize companywide communication onto a single software platform.
Zebra Success Story: Fanatics
Overview: Retail Challenge
Fanatics comprised five different companies with numerous products for sale both online and at sporting events. This variety made efficient, effective communication and task management a massive challenge.
Benefits / Outcomes
- Consolidated and synchronized communication strategies across the organization
- Simplified the process of launching and completing merchandising-related tasks
- Ensured consistent execution of promotions across venues
Customer
Fanatics
Jacksonville, Florida/USA
Industry
Retail
Solutions
About Fanatics
Fanatics is a leading sports apparel and fan gear retailer, offering retail’s largest inventory of sports equipment, memorabilia, and collectibles through e-commerce and merchandising. Founded in 1995, Fanatics operates more than 300 online and offline stores, including the e-commerce business for all major professional sports leagues, major media brands and more than 200 collegiate and professional team properties.
Fanatics has an innovative, tech-infused approach to selling sports merchandise to today’s sports fans, whether they’re at home or out at a game. Fanatics also sells sports merchandise at major events such as the Kentucky Derby, Ryder Cup and NHL’s Winter Classic.
Fanatics wanted to simplify communication across the organization, making it easier to execute promotions and other important initiatives. To accomplish this goal, it selected Workcloud Real-Time Task Management to streamline communication and provide more visibility into what tasks were being sent and when they were being completed.
The Challenge
Early on, Fanatics had no way to disseminate information consistently and follow through on execution. It also had very little visibility into what tasks were being completed. That lack of visibility made it difficult to understand whether merchandisers had properly set up displays for the right events.
Fanatics also had to contend with the challenge of uniting and synchronizing the communications methodology of the five distinct companies that made up its corporate portfolio. “The biggest issue was constant communication via phone and email,” says Michael Moran, VP of Retail Operations at Fanatics. “It basically took the merchant team to its knees because we had 40 venues all calling every day.”
The Solution
Fanatics selected Workcloud Real-Time Task Management to consolidate communication and task management onto one single platform and improve its merchandising processes. The solution ensured consistent and effective communication, timely execution of all major merchandising projects, and trackable results that could be used to continuously improve store operations. “It’s far more advanced than any other competitor,” Moran says. “It has the full capability to give us all the results we needed.”
Fanatics also chose Zebra because of its track record providing world-class support to retailers both during implementation and throughout their partnerships. “When you’re looking for any type of support, [Zebra is] fantastic,” says Moran. “You’ll build great relationships and the team is truly caring towards each other and the client.”
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Fanatics saw substantial improvements to its store execution. “Some of the really key benefits that we identified in our ROI process and that we have measured since have been promotional improvements,” says Moran. Workcloud Real-Time Task Management has made it easier for the Fanatics team to set up and track promotions, while making better decisions based on quantifiable results.
Streamlining communication also simplified the process of launching merchandising tasks. This ensures that the merchandising team knows how to complete them and can notify managers that they have been completed properly. With Workcloud Real-Time Task Management, visibility has been increased into what tasks are being sent to individual venues, and merchandising teams are able to set up properly for the right events.
Fanatics plans to continue consolidating systems and simplifying processes across the organization. “We’re making sure that we’re designing all of our systems in one environment,” says Moran. “That will give us the advantage when it comes to customer contact points; everything is very seamless and natural.”
