By partnering with Syncee almost a decade ago, ek Wholesale successfully transformed its traditional clothing supply business into a more streamlined and automated dropshipping operation, enabling same-day order dispatch and a rapid increase in its retailer network.

The collaboration between ek Wholesale and Syncee has proven that even a business with decades of history can successfully modernize its operations when supported by the right technical foundations. By automating product listings and synchronizing order management, the company not only eliminated manual errors but also introduced significant operational efficiencies. The primary goal of this partnership was to ensure that the inventory held in their Glasgow warehouse could be shared seamlessly and instantly with retailers, providing a solid foundation for continued growth in Europe.

About ek Wholesale

ek Wholesale was established in 1990, in an era long before the existence of e-commerce. The business started by supplying ladies’ and gents’ clothing to local traders and small independent shops. Over the years, they built a formidable reputation for delivering quality products at highly competitive prices, which allowed them to expand their customer base to include major chain stores and retailers throughout Europe. Today, they operate from a large-scale warehouse in Glasgow. While the brand’s foundations are rooted in traditional retail, they successfully transitioned to the modern market by launching their current website on March 20, 2018, to better serve the growing demand for digital wholesale and dropshipping solutions.

Challenges before Syncee

Prior to integrating Syncee, ek Wholesale faced significant operational hurdles that threatened their ability to scale. Although they had developed an in-house application to allow dropship orders to be uploaded into their system, the solution was incomplete. It lacked the capability to handle inventory management and still required a heavy amount of manual labor to process individual orders and capture payments. This reliance on manual intervention created a bottleneck; the team was often tied up with repetitive administrative tasks, which prevented them from focusing on high-level business development and strategic marketing efforts. They needed a way to move past these operational challenges and find a more dependable, end-to-end automated system.

Why Syncee?

The decision to choose Syncee was driven by the urgent need for a professional solution that could automate the entire dropshipping workflow. Ek Wholesale was looking for a platform that could efficiently list large product ranges, maintain inventory accuracy, and streamline the entire order processing cycle. Syncee stood out because it “ticked every box” by offering a straightforward setup that removed the manual burdens they had previously endured. Furthermore, Syncee provided something their in-house app couldn’t: immediate access to an established and professional user base that was already familiar with the dropshipping model, providing a ready-made market for their products.

From the supplier’s perspective, automated order placement and the automatic pushing of tracking numbers became a significant time saver. In conclusion, the partnership has delivered exactly what was promised. As the company states:

“Syncee brought improved efficiencies for both the retailers and ourselves via the automation of product listing and order placement.”

How Syncee helped

The implementation of Syncee’s automation tools marked a major milestone in ek Wholesale’s digital strategy. In the beginning, ek Wholesale was using a product datafeed file with continuous updates to list their products on Syncee, and as time went by, they made a Shopify store integration with Syncee’s supplier application for a more seamless operation and a more convenient order management.

From the retailers’ point of view, the ability to quickly list items from the ek Wholesale store into their own storefronts proved invaluable. By utilizing Syncee’s platform and automation features, the company established a flexible technical structure that bridges the gap between the warehouse and the retailer. On the supplier’s side, this automation ensured that as the product catalog grew, the operational workload remained manageable and error-free.

Results

Following the implementation, the business metrics confirmed that the move to an automated infrastructure was a definitive success. The most notable impacts included:

• Same-Day Dispatch: The improved efficiencies allowed ek Wholesale to dispatch orders placed by 2:00 PM on the same working day. This would simply not have been possible without the automations provided by Syncee.
• Rapid Customer Growth: Having an existing user base already familiar with dropshipping allowed the company to increase its number of customers in a very short space of time.
• Operational Efficiency: Syncee has brought improved efficiencies for both the retailers and the supplier via the automation of product listing and order placement, freeing the team to focus on areas that drive the business forward.

Future with Syncee

Moving forward, ek Wholesale is well-positioned to strengthen its international market presence. Their primary goal is to begin shipping internationally again, leveraging Syncee’s global user base to grow that side of the business. By maintaining the stable technical foundations already in place, ek Wholesale plans to remain a leader in the clothing wholesale market, using Syncee’s scalability to diversify their reach. As they advise other merchants:

“It’s a low-risk decision to try Syncee, so there’s really nothing to lose.”

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