Nobody’s Child turned to HighCohesion to integrate a tech stack that put them in control.
The Snag
Nobody's Child was keen to make a move from Magento to Shopify, and, in parallel, improve inventory management and automate human-heavy tasks.
With no dedicated integration partner, the brand had little visibility of the day-to-day operational issues impacting the business. Daily reporting and error alerting on integrations was largely limited.
There was also a need for documentation detailing the cause of returns to the warehouse to aid wider business decision-making.
The Project
To migrate from Magento to Shopify within 3.5 months was an ambitious target. Nobody's Child was onboarding a new agency to build the brand's front-end, integrating all tech onto the Shopify platform and building a backend connection with their warehouse, which required customisation with a third party as their iPaaS.
After an introduction from consultancy Commerce Thinking, the HighCohesion team helped Nobody's Child assess what was happening in Magento and with their 3PL and returns service partner; identifying the core processes that needed to be configured for Shopify. HighCohesion set to work mapping the order fulfilment and inventory streams and set these up following thorough user acceptance testing.
The handling of international orders by Global-e through SEKO added complexity. HighCohesion had to carefully map to different service types and add custom data to international orders to ensure they were treated differently to UK orders both in the warehouse and more importantly, at customs.
The move from Magento to Shopify had to be faultless, without a break in orders and refunds being processed, so go-live required seamless coordination between all partners and platforms: HighCohesion, Limesharp, Commerce Thinking, SEKO, Global-e, and ZigZag. No mean feat the day after the brand's biggest sales day of the year!
The integrations were put to the test the very next day with a full warehouse stocktake, which resulted in three times more inventory adjustments and movements than on a typical day. Each of these sent a near-instant adjustment back to Shopify, reducing overselling and improving awareness of warehouse activities.
While a project of this complexity could take months to execute, the HighCohesion team moved at pace to handle the e-commerce migration and integrate the tech stack in under four weeks.
Shortly after, during Hypercare, integrations were built to handle more complex return use cases. These allowed for multiple automated returns against a single order and eliminated the risk of over-refunding by blocking automatic refunds where a manual intervention occurred.
“Our goal was to make the transition seamless, so the changes felt effortless for the Nobody’s Child team.
The project wasn’t without its challenges - we pivoted several times in the Scope and Build phases to account for a period where both the Magento and Shopify sites would be running simultaneously to ensure a smooth cutover.
After go-live, we spotted opportunities to improve the ways of working and give Nobody’s Child more detail and flexibility. We added another inventory stream to allow new inbound stock to be targeted as required and more complex refund logic to better support the Customer Service team.
We have a fantastic working relationship with the Nobody’s Child team, and I’m excited to see what’s next!"
The Results
Full Data Visibility: Access to the HighCohesion Control Panel gives Nobody's Child full visibility of every piece of data being processed, plus real-time error reporting and alerts, enabling root cause analysis. Live Inventory Management: The integration with SEKO has enabled live inventory management, helping the brand understand the reasons for, and eliminate, overselling.
Improved Processes: New and quicker integrations have addressed issues with next-day delivery cut-off times and enhanced the refund process by notifying the warehouse when a return is due, and allowing Customer Service to see when a refund has been issued.
Cleaner Reporting: The HighCohesion Control Panel enables the brand to resend orders that were initially rejected by the WMS due to out-of-stock items. This improves financial reporting accuracy and prevents the need for manual order duplication.
HighCohesion's Customer Success Plan has tackled issues such as:
Flagging high-risk, potentially fraudulent orders for review before processing.
Eliminating the need to manually fetch stock availability outside of the daily scheduled inventory stream.
“We successfully migrated from Magento to Shopify on time, on plan, and on budget, thanks in large part to HighCohesion's pivotal role. Acting as the crucial link between Shopify and our 3PL, HighCohesion has driven significant operational and customer-facing improvements. Their methodical and detailed approach impressed our team, guiding us seamlessly through the transition without disrupting our fast-paced operations. The new systems automate prior manual tasks and provide greater visibility into our data, enabling us to resolve issues and make faster, more informed decisions.
A clear example of this success is the 61% reduction in out-of-stock purchases, which has led to fewer disappointed customers and a more efficient inventory management process. This improvement not only enhances the customer experience but also optimises our supply chain, reducing costs and increasing overall reliability.
We look forward to continuing to optimise our workflows as we scale, ensuring our systemsdiv agile and future-proofed for ongoing growth.”
