GraduationSource Transforms $5 Billion Industry With Celigo’s eTail 360™ Solution: Company & Schools Positioned to Profit

“The Celigo connector allows us to build out complete stores for each school and drastically opened up the door to leverage the Magento eCommerce solution. Celigo was able to put everything to a “T” for us—Magento, NetSuite, 3PL—all in 3 months!”

Kristoff Albanese
GraduationSource

Customer

GraduationSource

Industry

Consumer Goods

Headquarters

Greenwich, Connecticut

www.graduationsource.com

Products Used

Magento Connector

About

GraduationSource is an online retailer of graduation regalia, providing gowns, accessories and custom products for all stages of education.

Background

Being able to transfer order data in real-time is critical to maintaining success in an online retail environment. GraduationSource previously used another integration solutions provider, but found it lacking in enabling the company to fulfill orders quickly and correctly. With their previous system, orders were delayed up to an hour and mapping was not efficient. GraduationSource wanted to have real-time data transfer between their Magento store and NetSuite, and to have a streamline ordering and fulfillment process.

The Challenge

Today, a cadre of ‘old school’ suppliers of graduation gowns and services have a predictable business model that includes high costs for struggling schools and students. Every September an army of 1099 sales reps go from school to school, meeting with graduation coordinators to get the May-June commencement order. They place the order with the manufacturer, sit back, and watch the money roll in.

GraduationSource was determined to disrupt this model, going direct to the schools and the students and passing the saving back to the schools, PTA and students. But each school has unique pricing and packages, so to do this, they needed to transform into a more modern, eCommerce-like business, with custom online stores for each store, where ordering, customization and fulfillment could all run in a smooth, efficient and automated manner.

The Solution

The Magento Connector for NetSuite came to the rescue, which enabled real-time order data between their webstore and their ERP system. The connector allowed GraduationSource to build out complete stores for each school, opening up the door to leverage the Magento platform, and paving the way for the company to disrupt an older, traditional business industry. Mappings are now simpler and readily available, providing the retailer with endless customization options—crucial to their success as a growing company. With Celigo’s Magento Connector, the company easily and accurately moves 250,000 units from Illinois to Missouri without experiencing any delays.

Bottomline

GraduationSource successfully achieved their goal of changing a traditional industry and bringing it more into the eCommerce model by developing an efficient order management and fulfillment system for their business. Now with Celigo’s Magento Connector, they can promise same-day shipping and deliver on their promise. They are able to build out individual stores for each school that approaches them for graduation apparel, saving time and money for all parties involved.

Enabled the organization to have one dashboard to manage sales, purchasing, inventory, accounting, and shipping.
Decreased lead-time on fulfillment: orders made by 3pm are picked and shipped the same day.
Created potential for expanding their business via multiple web stores catering to different audiences.
Decreased data transfer time: data sync used to take up to 1 hour; now it happens in real time.
Increased efficiency within the organization—now only 1 contact is needed to manage orders from schools.