Case Study: Quiksilver Inc.

The Business Challenge

Initially, Quiksilver offered its employees (and other selected individuals) the opportunity to physically visit and shop at the Quiksilver warehouse for Quiksilver merchandise. Shopping at the Quiksilver warehouse provides employees with substantial cost savings, but Quiksilver’s management soon realized that it also created several logistical problems and issues that needed to be resolved, including:

• Inventory supply issues (purchased items could leave a shortfall for incoming Dealer orders)
• Conflicts with Dealer order filling (shopping directly in the warehouse could conflict with warehouse employees’ ability to fill dealer orders)
• Increased staff resource demands (shopping required warehouse staffing and accounting)
• Periods of reduced productivity (work time lost by scheduling employees time to physically shop and wait in line-ups in the warehouse)
• Additional clean-up requirements (warehouse shopping required the usual clean-up caused by picking and shopping)

Quiksilver recognized an opportunity to effectively address these issues while continuing to offer the benefits of warehouse shopping by implementing an online store. Through the use of an online store, Quiksilver would be able to streamline employee retail purchasing from the warehouse. The company would be able to better manage available merchandise based on current orders, manage available SKUs, and automate the process of accounting for sales, including payroll deductions for employee purchases. Quiksilver, therefore, required a technology partner to develop a detailed understanding of their corporate environment, and to develop a technical solution that would meet their business challenges and be successfully adopted by employees within the organization.

Our Approach

To assist Quiksilver in streamlining its warehouse operations, zed developed an online virtual warehouse store–Quikstore. Due to the magnitude of this project, zed and Quiksilver agreed to a phased approach to development. For the first phase of the engagement, zed worked closely with Quiksilver to collaboratively establish a vision for the Quikstore, and to create technical and functional specifications and a working prototype of the QuikStore web application.

The prototype presented a look and feel consistent with Quiksilver’s culture and clearly demonstrated how employees would be able to browse available inventory by brand, category and style, and to purchase available products online at employee discount prices, thereby eliminating the challenges associated with the physical walk-through purchasing process.

Phase II of the engagement involved the development and deployment of Quikstore to provide access to Quiksilver employees, while planning for potential expansion to include partners, friends and even consumers. The delivered Quikstore application consisted of two high-level functions: the creation and population of the Quikstore catalog, and the completion of online transactions for employees. The catalog creation and population process was designed to be completed in batches and executed in regularly scheduled intervals to ensure an accurate and up-to-date catalog was available. The online transactions were designed to be completed in real time, with all orders being added directly to the company’s back-end AS/400 ACS system.

zed strived to understand our business operations, producing a solution that has not only streamlined the order process, but also resulted in increased organizational efficiencies and cost savings of more than $120K per month.

Tom Stevenson
VP, Advanced Technology, Quiksilver

The Outcome

Since zed developed and implemented Quikstore, a custom web-based solution to replace employee shopping in Quiksilver’s physical warehouse, employees have been able to enjoy a more organized and user-friendly shopping experience through the company’s corporate Intranet. The delivered solution has not only streamlined the order process, but also resulted in increased organizational efficiencies and cost savings for the company of more than $120K per month.

Following the successful completion of the development of QuikStore and its initial launch, zed began working with Quiksilver on Phase III of the project. This includes the addition of new functionality to the online store such as a size scale chart to display the in-stock availability of a specific color and size of a product, a stored Ship to… address for each user, and navigation to shop by season, as well improvements to the basic Quikstore functionality implemented in Phase II. zed also continues to provide ongoing maintenance and upgrade support to Quiksilver for the Quikstore application.

Over the last five years, zed has continued to maintain a strong relationship with Quiksilver, with Quiksilver relying on zed to provide expertise in the design, development and implementation of custom web-based applications. Through our established, collaborative relationship with Quiksilver, we have a detailed understanding of their corporate vision, their existing infrastructure, and how technology can work for them. As Quiksilver continues to identify new technology initiatives to strengthen, enrich and enhance the company’s operations, these new opportunities further promote their confidence in zed as a trusted IT advisor across the enterprise, allowing us to expand upon our recent successes to add measurable value to Quiksilver’s operations.

About Quiksilver
Quiksilver Inc., the leading provider of surf wear across North America consists of many successful brands, including Quiksilver and Roxy. Quiksilver has had specific success as an innovative sports apparel and equipment company that caters to the demanding quality and style requirements of outdoor sports enthusiasts. Quiksilver currently enjoys a truly global brand, but retains a culture deeply rooted in the sport of surfing.

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