New Era.
New Era turned to HighCohesion to expand while smoothing its order and returns process, automating its data transfer and boosting its efficiency.
The brand.
Plenty of brands talk about their heritage. Few have a back story like New Era.
Founded in 1920 by German Ehrhardt Koch in New York State, New Era was born using money borrowed from Koch’s sister.
The founder went on to manufacture and sell some 60,000 Great Gatsby-style caps in his first year.
But in 1934 New Era came up with probably the most universally recognised headwear of them all; the baseball cap. You probably know it!
The Cleveland Indians were the first team to wear them, but today, New Era is the official cap supplier to three of the USA’s four major leagues - the NFL, NBA and, of course, the MLB.
Beyond sports, countless music and film stars have been seen wearing New Era caps and wider clothing ranges across the globe, making it a true world leader in its field.
The snag.
Even world leaders need help from time to time. Enter HighCohesion.
The mission was to expand into New Zealand but also to move from SAP Commerce Cloud to Shopify.
That’s thousands of lines of data, assets and historical transactions that needed to be safely migrated, but the reward for doing so would be great.
Its current system required constant communications with its HQ, with weeks between requests and end results.
Shopify would bring the ability to adapt promotions and product lines at a local level, giving it the flexibility and agility to compete when required.
That agility would also bring the ability to respond better to sporting events, launch collabs with the hottest brands and the biggest influencers
And off the back of the system swap, New Era was also looking to bring far greater control and authority over its returns process and customer pre-order experience.
Orders
Smoothing out New Era’s in-stock and pre-order customer order journey
Data
Automating New Era’s data transfer with its ERP for seamless integration
Agility
Helping New Era react quicker to market events and capitalise on key opportunities first
Returns
A more advanced returns process with fewer errors
Bibin Mohan - Senior Solution Architect, New Era Cap.
“I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the invaluable support you offered throughout the entire duration of the project. Your unwavering commitment and dedication to the task at hand were truly remarkable.
Thank you so much for your time and effort.”
The HighCohesion solution.
HighCohesion’s good work earned it a recommendation from top Shopify agency The Working Party, with the first discovery meetings with New Era taking place in July 2022.
A couple of months later, work began to help this global business expand and find efficiencies.
New Era was already transforming from a heritage brand focused on American sport to one focused on lifestyle, working with leading sports, streetwear and lifestyle retailers, particularly in Europe.
Take New Era’s collab with British luxury clothing brand Represent Clothing, another firm putting emphasis on quality garment design and manufacturing and working with HighCohesion to smooth its path to success.
But beyond the importance of New Era’s data migration from SAP Commerce Cloud to Shopify, there were three major tasks for HighCohesion to attack.
The first was ensuring that New Era’s existing SAP ERP could effectively communicate with Shopify. This was a fundamental requirement that underpinned the entire integration.
Second was an overhaul of New Era’s returns process, which was desperately in need of greater automation to allow staff to focus on delivering a better customer experience.
HighCohesion also integrated Loop, something that would have been impossible on its previous system.
Pre-Loop, customers returning the wrong or different item led to a lengthy manual process of back-end investigation. HighCohesion built in the tech to automate and streamline the problem away.
New Era’s warehouse was now receiving more advanced data, saving time and money and delivering that improved customer experience.
But Loop also brought with it a better process for swapping items rather than returning them, suggesting credit rather than simply returning funds. The result? More customer choice and better engagement.
Thirdly, New Era’s Hot Market product allowing customers to pre-order caps based on big-game results was causing issues at the back end that had deliveries delayed.
HighCohesion ensured same-basket order lines were divided and put a stop to good-to-go in-stock items being dispatched after the final whistle was blown.
HighCohesion’s flexibility allowed effective communication with New Era’s HQ in the US with its local teams in Australia and New Zealand to overcome extreme time zone differences and provide the solution.
Tech stack integrated through HighCohesion
Ecommerce Platform
ERP
Returns Management