SEKO's transformative small-shipper solution enabled The Iconic to mobilise sellers into a national drop-ship solution for Australia’s premier marketplace retailer

The Iconic is an Australian-based online marketplace that delivers a large selection of stylish men's and women's apparel, footwear, cosmetics and other consumer items. With a combination of inventory dispatched from their own warehouse and fulfilment from a large base of drop-ship suppliers, The Iconic has become THE destination for online fashion shoppers in Australia.

Benefits of the SEKO solution

• Pickups from nationally located supplier-base
• Delivery costs centralised and controlled by The Iconic
• Domestic and international shipping solutions with a consistent brand tracking message
• Scalable from small to large suppliers

The Challenge

Drop-ship suppliers pose multiple challenges for traditional Australian delivery providers, including inconsistent pickup volumes, centralised charging for deliveries and consistent brand messaging and consumer experience. Most carriers have infrastructure designed to pickup from a single location, base pricing on that location outbound domestically and/or internationally and charging for that location in a single invoice.

The Solution

SEKO’s solution for The Iconic was to create a multi-carrier solution that leveraged the best of each carrier, but centralised back to a single point of billing and customer experience. SEKO’s marketplace module integrates with The Iconic’s “Seller Centre”, where the suppliers access their orders and shipping labels. To the suppliers, they see a single label and when they manifest to indicate that the orders have been packed, it triggers a pickup action through the SEKO system to the pickup carrier. Once picked up, the orders are brought to SEKO’s hubs where they are streamed into the different final mile carriers for both Australian and New Zealand deliveries. New labels are applied where required, but the tracking of the deliveries of those parcels remains consistent against the original tracking number applied to the parcel when the supplier first printed the label.

SEKO has given The Iconic a single rate-card for the drop-shipped deliveries, meaning that The Iconic benefits through their purchasing power rather than having multiple cost-bases depending on the carrier accounts of each supplier.

The Result

SEKO’s solution has allowed The Iconic to continually add new suppliers to their marketplace whilst ensuring that the standard of service and the rates remain consistent. Invoicing is supported by comprehensive reporting of each package regardless of which supplier or city it originated from.