KING SHIPS OVER 2,000 DISPLAY FIXTURES BEFORE THANKSGIVING.
Gives thanks for things like on-time deliveries.

THE CLIENT CHALLENGE
For our client, a push to deliver and merchandise almost 2,200 permanent DVD displays prior to Thanksgiving would mean a large increase in holiday sales. A tall task to begin with, but the challenges didn’t end there. The fixtures needed to arrive at stores prior to specific dates in order to meet scheduled release dates. Plus, there were two versions of fixtures so the schedule needed to be built around the availability of each type. And there’s more. Our customer was in California and the fixture manufacturer was in Illinois. The manufacturer had minimal space for storage while waiting for multiple party pick-ups. And when commitments were not met in the first few days, the schedule had to be quickly reworked. We think it goes without saying that daily status updates with actual PODs was a necessity.

THE KING SOLUTION
It started with the facts. King gathered every piece of information they could in reference to the merchandise schedule, the fixture characteristics and the vendors’ capabilities to collaborate with the proper partners. This all allowed for safe and cost-effective service, quick trailer turns, transparent visibility to fixture status and capacity to move the volumes needed per day. King built and provided release schedules, BOLs and labels for each destination, to aid in the vendors’ preplanning of their production and loading schedule. This also allowed for flexibility and quick changes in the schedule (which was very useful the day that 31 orders were canceled). In addition, we divided the country into four distribution regions, in order to get better sales coverage and the fixtures moved through the system as quickly as possible.

Daily proactive status updates gave the customers a quick snapshot to each shipment’s status. This let our client know which locations had delivered and what could be merchandised by their field agents. This visibility also gave King the opportunity to deal with potential problems before they became major issues. All in a day’s work for King Solutions.

THE END RESULT
Our design and launch of a customized retail rollout plan allowed our client to place its permanent fixtures in a major electronics retailer, with faster floor placement and merchandising, creating a quicker realization of sales.

King shipped 2,178 DVD displays to 1,089 locations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska. We provided bills of lading and address labels for each shipment, and created and managed a ship schedule that delivered displays prior to ship date. Daily status reports provided actual names of receivers on proof of deliveries (PODs), and all potential issues or delays were communicated proactively. Oh yeah, and we made sure it all shipped in just 17 business days.

What can we say? We love a challenge.

“It has been a great working partnership with King Solutions, moving our time-sensitive rollout releases within the United States. The real-time reporting and customer service is a great added (but prerequisite) value. We look forward to doing future rollouts with King.” Robert Duvall, Director of Transportation–Warner Home Entertainment