UK-based fashion retailer End Clothing has had to write off £12m of stock after problems with a new automated fulfilment system led to some orders not being shipped to customers.
As reported by many UK media outlets, in its accounts, End Clothing stated that its new system had “presented challenges to the business, with adverse effects on both our operations and our customers’ ordering experience”.
The company added: “As a result, trading was adversely affected over several months, additional costs were incurred to ensure consistency of delivery to the end customer, and the company took a significant write off of stock as a result of stock missing the optimum sales window. The one-off costs associated with the implementation have been considered as exceptional items in the year.” End Clothing nonetheless also stressed that it was “confident that the inventory management processes and system issues” were “now in good order”.
According to The Times, the value of the stock the retailer had to write off was a whopping £12 million. The development arguably highlights just how important systems concerning fulfilment and logistics process are to retailers, and how much value they can offer when working to their potential.
