Innovation and inventory optimization come to the flower business

The flower business is one of the most traditional retail sectors. For years it continued to resist digital transformation until, in 2017, Colvin arrived to break with tradition and pave the way for innovation.

The company, which is based in Barcelona, ​​has been working on a disruptive project that aims to achieve the disintermediation of the sector from start to finish, from growers to online sales. The main objective is to achieve greater supply efficiency, more competitive prices and, above all, better product quality.

Like the rest of the eCommerce sector, Colvin had noticed a significant increase in demand that doubled the online retailer’s  turnover in 2020. That obliged them to find solutions that would allow them to scale the  business quickly and easily so as to maintain the customer experience intact even at times of peak demand.

In particular, Colvin needed to implement a system that would allow them to closely track the flowers entering each of their three production sites.

Since adopting Openbravo WMS, Colvin has been able to better track all incoming and outgoing products achieve real-time stock management, which is vital to optimizing flower and plant life. According to Pol Lligoña, Head of Global Operations at Colvin:

“To digitize operations and track all the stock from the moment we receive it until we have dispatched it to the customer, these are the aims of our collaboration  with Openbravo.”

Openbravo WMS allows Colvin to record the movements of all products and to know where each flower has been delivered and where it came from, allowing the company to quickly identify the supplier in case of quality problems, such as flowers that wilt prematurely, for example.

The next steps

The most immediate priority is to continue implementing tools that allow Colvin to automate the production of bouquets or the packaging of products. That may seem simple at first glance but we must not forget that plants and flowers are delicate and need good care so that when they arrive at their destination, they remain fresh and splendid.

Looking further out, the next challenge is to incorporate Artificial Intelligence to the production centers. There are defects or possible diseases of flowers and plants that may go unnoticed by the human eye but which, with machine vision technology, could be more easily detected by improving quality control processes.

Colvin’s experience is just another example of how retailers in various sectors are using digital technology as a tool to continue innovating and focusing on what is most important, namely offering an unbeatable customer experience.

👉Openbravo WMS is a complete warehouse and inventory management system that offers 100% visibility of stock levels in store, warehouses or in transit, from receipt and storage to picking and shipping, thus optimizing stock management. For more information on Openbravo WMS, visit our website.