From a newly established online shop in 2009 until to today, GetInspired has experienced a tremendous growth. The target group is girls who are looking for sporty clothes and shoes for workout and leisure, always focusing on customer service and super logistics with fast delivery. With constant growth, they had to make a choice between moving the warehouse abroad or investing locally with automation.

50% reduced delivery time with AutoStore

One of the challenges with a manual warehouse was getting the orders out fast enough for the customers. Since delivery time has always been a priority number one for Tvervåg and the rest of the team, there had to be a change.

“Manual picking with trolleys between shelves worked well, until we got AutoStore, then we revolutionised the entire warehouse process. We experienced 100% increase in production in the number of product lines per day, much better capacity and the flow of goods was significantly improved. It didn’t take long until the delivery time to our customers were reduced by 50%”, Warehouse and Logistics Manager, Vegard Tvervåg says.

Initially, the transformation from manual warehousing to an AutoStore solution was perceived as overwhelming, according to Vegard. Robots taking over some of the tasks that they used to do themselves. However, they quickly saw the benefits, and experienced that the working hours became more effective, the statistics showed great numbers – and with little downtime and maintenance, the employees can focus on production. There were several problems and interruptions associated with manual warehouse, in addition to being unfavourable ergonomically for the employees.

Automated system from Element Logic on the wish list

It all started with Vegard and Sindre Landevåg (General Manager) at GetInspired seeing the e-commerce player Stormberg’s robotic solution in full operation. “It was like going into a for a Warehouse Manager. I told Sindre that I wanted one for Christmas,” says Tvervåg. They got in touch with Kjell Blakseth from Element Logic, who invited them to visit Thanke in Lier, Norway. If we were not already convinced that this was something for us, we were definitely convinced after that visit. It was fascinating to see the goods flow straight into the warehouse and out again,” Tvervåg continues.

A scalable warehouse for the future

With the massive growth, a scalable warehouse system has been essential for GetInspired. They didn’t want to move or to purchase new warehouse inventory every season. With the robot solution from Element Logic, they have expanded several times, with no stops in operation. “Element Logic has been a very good partner for us and assisted with good solutions and close follow-up during the projects,” says Tvervåg. Scalability has also been very important for seasonal variations such as Black Friday. Tvervåg admits that they are a bit nervous every year. “Can we handle the pressure? The last two Black Fridays have been crazy in terms of number of orders, and we have taken several measures such as boosting picking stations and increasing staffing. We were shocked when realising how fast we were able to produce ourselves”, Vegard says, and continues humorously: “customers were almost receiving their products before they even placed the order online.”

Award for best online shop 2020

With the award for best online shop in 2016 fresh in memory, they won this year’s award among a total of 1.400 companies, with the following statement from the jury: “After several years of strong growth, GetInspired.no has managed to maintain personal communication with customers and has many loyal customers. They invest in continuous improvement of the customer experience and work to make the buying experience easier, better and customised for each customer. Everything they do should be relevant to the customers” (ehandel.com).

The future also looks bright, during the Covid-19 pandemic they have experienced an increased demand for casual wear, and they find that many are planning the Norwegian holiday by buying sporty clothes and shoes. “What has been very practical with AutoStore during this Covid-19 period is that we have managed to keep distance, and only the robots have had to work closely. We have been able to focus on cleaning and other measures that have been needed,” concludes Tvervåg.

Facts and figures:

• 29.310 bins
• 19 robots
• 8 operator ports