COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 6, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Americans want to order their holiday gifts online and get them tomorrow, if not sooner.
According to Forrester Research, more holiday shoppers are expected to use online shopping this holiday season, an increase of 12 percent over last year. Retailers have been preparing for months.
VARGO®, a Columbus-based material handling company that has developed Continuous Order Fulfillment Enterprise® (COFE®), a software solution that drives "intelligent warehouses." VARGO® has been working with many national retailers, including American Eagle Outfitters, to help them fill orders efficiently.
This holiday season, for example, will be the first year that American Eagle Outfitter Inc.'s distribution center in Pennsylvania will be filling customer orders as well as store-replenishment orders -- known as omnichannel fulfillment. The supply chain engineering power of COFE® made history when American Eagle's facility went live in June as the only all-waveless omnichannel fulfillment center in the world.
"VARGO® is excited to be an integral part of American Eagle's growing e-commerce," said Michael Vargo, president of VARGO® Companies. "The fulfillment center in Hazle Township is capable of reaching 90 percent of American Eagle Outfitters' retail customers in two days or less."
COFE®'s impact was noticeable immediately, said Art Eldred, client executive for systems engineering at VARGO®. In 2014, the facility could handle a peak of 316,000 units a day for direct-to-customer orders and 571,000 units a day for retail-replenishment orders. Upon full-system buildout, VARGO® and American Eagle expect those peaks to stretch to almost 450,000 units a day for direct-to-customer orders and 642,000 units a day for retail-replenishment.
"While the facility is capable of serving all the stores in the chain, the Hazle Township, Pa., distribution center will primarily service 416 stores, approximately 50 percent of the retail inventory," said Christine Miller, director of operations at the distribution center. The center also will continue to fill all direct-to-customer e-commerce orders for the eastern half of the United States.
About VARGO®
VARGO® is a team of fulfillment and distribution center specialists with expertise in systems integration, distribution center process improvement, and specialized material handling equipment. For more than four decades, it has been working with retailers, manufacturers, wholesale and direct-to-consumer distributors to improve material handling operations and move beyond traditional distribution methodologies. VARGO® is at the forefront of the lean distribution movement and is the only company that offers COFE® (Continuous Order Fulfillment Enterprise) software, the tool that makes true lean distribution possible. COFE® made history on June 15, 2015, with the launch of the omnichannel installation at the American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., facility in Pennsylvania. More information is available at http://www.vargosolutions.com.
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