Specialist educational wooden toy company Bigjigs Toys has reduced shipping and label production costs, automated its order dispatch process and can now effortlessly scale its carrier network, with a solution from delivery management platform Scurri.
Launched in 1985, the family-owned business designs and manufactures toys made from ethically sourced materials from its HQ in Kent, designed to support children’s development through play. From rhythm to number recognition, manual dexterity to gross motor skills, Bigjigs’ aim is to encourage children to play, explore and learn.
The company, which employees more than 50 staff, supplies toys to a variety of retail partners, including John Lewis and Blue Diamond, and launched its direct-to-consumer (DTC) website in 2018. To grow further, Bigjigs sought to replace its incumbent carrier management platform with one that could integrate easily into its existing tech stack, while delivering a user-friendly and intuitive interface that would allow it to provide excellent customer support.
The business also wanted to reduce overspend on carrier services by making sure each parcel was charged at the most competitive rate to increase profitability.
Scurri worked collaboratively to build a platform that would meet Bigjigs’ business objectives and delivery capabilities, with the solution going live in 2020, which coincided with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and helped the toymaker seamlessly handle what was the busiest sales and fulfilment period it had ever experienced.
Three years on, the partnership with Scurri has enabled Bigjigs to embed greater business efficiency by allowing the company to automate key elements of their dispatch process, including carrier allocation and label generation, reducing the need for staff to make decisions in the packing warehouse. This capability is particularly crucial to its peak trading operations, when during the Christmas period staff process significantly higher volumes of orders daily.
Scurri also enables Bigjigs to effortlessly manage its extensive carrier network to scale and meet these peaks in demand, offering access to additional carriers when necessary, avoiding the need for lengthy onboarding, ensuring seamless customer service is maintained.
Using the Scurri platform, Bigjigs can set automated rules, based on the dimensions or contents of each parcel, to choose the optimal carrier service for each order.
Sam Ireland, operations director at Bigjigs Toys, said: “In the lead up to Christmas 2022, we were able to integrate a new carrier in just a week and a half avoiding serious customer service issues and maintaining business continuity during our most critical selling period.
“The reporting component of the solution provides us with data around carrier performance that is invaluable during supplier negotiations. Additionally, our label creation and cost per parcel shipped has also decreased.”
The company continues to evolve its delivery propositions in line with what its courier partners can offer and is working with Scurri to add pallet couriers into the platform this year to further streamline its operations.
Read more in the recently published whitepaper Scurri: Controlling agility – Bringing the benefits of flexibility to modern delivery. Download it to discover:
- Why retail reliability and their delivery partners drive more customer loyalty and spend
- How should retailers keep up with strike action and delivery disruption?
- Why a multi carrier model could be the answer for many retailers
- Delivery visibility for consumers is vital and is only achievable with the correct data and connected systems
Scurri are also a sponsor of the inaugural DeliveryX World, taking place 12 October in London’s Bishopgate. Find our more here.
