Customer Success Story: Tamaris

Delivery excellence and a focus on both the customer and the environment, today and in the future

Women’s shoe brand Tamaris relies on Seven Senders to drive its internationalization, customer-centric, and sustainability strategies

This is where Tamaris, a brand owned by the Detmold-based Wortmann Group, decided to rely on the internationalization and carrier expertise of Seven Senders.

Achieving success in international e-commerce is something of a juggling act. On the one hand, it’s about providing customers with the best support possible. On the other, businesses need to focus on streamlining processes, reducing costs, expanding into new markets, and meeting sustainability targets.

A strong carrier network enables easier internationalization

Tamaris shoes, clothing, and accessories are sold online in 26 European countries. The DACH region is one of the company’s strongest markets. International markets, in particular, also play a major role, and the challenges grow with the degree of internationalization: “In the course of our Europe-wide expansion, we first define core markets to find an optimal approach,” reports Marco Ziemski, Head of E-commerce at Wortmann Fashion Retail GmbH. “In addition to an online store and customer service in the respective national language, this also includes a last-mile carrier that is the leader in the respective country.”

Against this background, Tamaris ended its collaboration with the fulfillment partner responsible for carrier management in 2019. And chose Seven Senders – a partner whose extensive, international carrier network offers high flexibility in shipments, returns, customer care, and sustainability and provides services such as notifications, tracking, and individual delivery options.

“We were able to increase our delivery efficiency last year significantly. This success is undoubtedly related to the fact that we were able to continuously optimize delivery quality, options, and other factors that play a critical role for us.”

Expert consultation supports successful expansion

The cooperation started with France, the Netherlands, and Austria. Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and the Czech Republic followed later. The company has also recently started shipping to Great Britain with Seven Senders.
It was important for Tamaris to have enough flexibility for individual preferences for each country: “For example, we wanted to offer the service providers La Poste and Mondial Relay for shipping in France and Post AT in Austria to offer our end customers the delivery experience they are used to and want,” says Ziemski.

By working with Seven Senders and new carriers, Tamaris was able to shorten its delivery times in Austria and France by almost one day. In Austria, Tamaris plans to work with Seven Senders to bring more carriers on board to meet customers’ needs better.

Especially in France and Scandinavian countries, the demand for alternatives to home delivery is increasing. To enable customers to flexibly pick up their parcels at designated pick-up and drop-off locations (PUDO), Tamaris now offers this delivery option in their webshops: “Not all shipping service providers offer alternative delivery options like PUDO. With the help of Seven Senders, we can easily integrate this additional service into our system and thus better respond to different customer preferences,” adds Ziemski.

For business operations in Switzerland, Seven Senders supports Tamaris with shipping and customs clearance, including a returns solution. “Without this option, shipping to Switzerland would be extremely costly, possibly even unprofitable for us in large parts,” says Ziemski. Expansion into the British market is now also planned following this positive experience.

“In each case, we can choose which carrier works best, which service makes sense, and much more. When we consult, we learn what the benefits are for our end customers. This international expertise is very valuable for us,” adds Ziemski.

Transparent customer communication in Tamaris design

Another important area for the company is close and personalized communication with customers. This is the central pillar of the business’s customer services strategy to increase satisfaction. For example, the customer is informed personally and directly by Tamaris when a shipment is on its way or will arrive soon rather than via a link to the carrier’s website. This is made possible by the Seven Senders Notifications service.

The fact that the customer receives these messages in the Tamaris style lends itself to further business opportunities – details of interesting products can be included, for example. The end customer remains in the Tamaris world instead of being redirected to an external company. Tamaris is currently trialing Notifications in the German market to see how well the service is received. As the click rates demonstrate high performance, customers in other countries should also soon benefit from this option.

Sustainable growth with greener shipping

But it is not only in terms of customer satisfaction that the delivery platform proved to be a growth driver: Tamaris pursues a decided sustainability strategy, which is also supported by the cooperation with Seven Senders.

A company headquarters equipped with photovoltaics, environmentally friendly packaging and the use of new, sustainable materials are just a few examples with which the company underpins its sustainability strategy.

Another important contribution to the company’s eco-balance is shipping carbon-neutral with 7SGreen. For a few cents extra per shipment, the exact amount of CO2 emissions per parcel, determined according to a DEKRAcertified calculation method, is offset.

Annual certificates provide a transparent overview of the emissions saved. “As we know, a lot of emissions are emitted in e commerce through parcel shipments and returns. We have to and want to compensate for that. That’s why it’s great that we can now ship to all countries carbon-neutral with 7SGreen,” says Ziemski. Additionally, the company does not use color-printed packages and uses paper-based instead of plastic-based adhesive tape.

“In our collaboration with Seven Senders, new approaches for improvements and efficiency gains are constantly developing – whether we’re talking about shipping, returns, customer service or sustainability,” reports Ziemski.

Our other articles

Customer Success Story: Tamaris

Delivery excellence and a focus on both the customer and the environment, today and in the future

A strong carrier network enables easier internationalization

Expert consultation supports successful expansion

Transparent customer communication in Tamaris design

Sustainable growth with greener shipping

Our other articles

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Bergzeit

The Quality Group

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