Disruption is not for the faint of heart—but when Scott and Missy Tannen learned about the unethical and polluting practices in the home-textiles industry, they saw an opportunity to “make better sheets by making a better company.” Boll & Branch was born.
As the first fair trade home textiles brand, Boll & Branch meets strict standards for labor practices and sustainability. This was achieved by reinventing the supply chain, all the way from the cotton seed to the product reaching the customer’s home. In 2014, after 18 months of product development, Boll & Branch launched its first sheet sets on Shopify.
A daring investment with a big payoff, the eco-friendly and luxurious bedding was so popular that Boll & Branch reached more than $27 million in annual revenue in its first three years.
Challenge
This rapid growth presented unusual challenges. Staying true to the brand while meeting customer demand required unconventional thinking and innovative systems.
Traditional home textile brands overproduce to meet customer demand. This leaves excess, unsold merchandise sitting in a warehouse, eating away at profit margins until sold at a loss or disposed of. To temper these costs, brands negotiate lower rates with their suppliers, resulting in poverty wages and unsafe conditions for factory workers and farmers.
But Boll & Branch is a different company. Sustainability, transparency, and ethical practices are core values behind every strategic decision. Committing to fair trade means its product comes with higher production costs. To maintain profit margins, Boll & Branch needed to build an ultra-efficient infrastructure and automate processes wherever possible.
David Reid joined the company as the COO and CFO at the end of 2016. His mission was to scale Boll & Branch for future growth, adding new product lines and sales channels. The company was evolving from a single Shopify store and warehouse to a complex ecosystem of headless ecommerce, branded storefronts, and retail partners selling made-to-order and warehoused goods.
NetSuite was chosen as the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to streamline business flows and support day-to-day operations. But Boll & Branch needed more than an ERP—it needed a holistic solution of interconnected systems to help streamline business functions, while ensuring actions triggered changes in other systems.
Solution
Diff built a comprehensive ERP integration orchestrating complex processes, interconnecting data from order sources to its supply network.
The integration makes strategic customer experience initiatives possible, with abilities to:
- Shop with up-to-date accurate inventory
- Purchase from a single checkout regardless of where and when merchandise is fulfilled or manufactured
- Upgrade shipping from options available with the lowest cost carrier in the state
- Track and manage orders online with real-time updates
- Purchase gift cards: physical with a handwritten message or digital
Internally, processes have been automated and a suite of tools created to manage the business, including:
- A panel for customer service to manage orders and process refunds
- Flagging and presenting potentially fraudulent orders in a panel for review
- Routing orders to the appropriate fulfillment center or made-to-order factory
- ZIP code mapping to send made-to-order mattresses to the factory nearest the delivery address
- Virtual warehousing of inventory set aside for retail partners
- Options to override and retry automated processes
Results
What’s good for the planet is good for business. Today, Boll & Branch is the largest D2C bedding brand in the world. The company’s annual revenue exceeds $100 million, a 430% increase from when it started with Diff.
Diff’s advanced ERP integration orchestrates the business without the need for manual intervention. There is no better example of this than at checkout: a single cart can have sheets from the Boston warehouse, rugs from another warehouse, and mattresses from a made-to-order factory requiring white-glove delivery and installation. Eight custom APIs ensure data is routed correctly while the customers, business, and suppliers get real-time updates.
Boll & Branch’s peace of mind in knowing operations are running smoothly means the company can focus on strategic initiatives. Growing the business while investing back into its product to improve the livelihood of farmers and factory workers that make its coveted bedding.
Diff continues to grow and manage the ERP integration to suit the ever-evolving needs of this modern, disruptive company.
