Tea Collection improves operations & cuts costs with 3PL partnership

Tea Collection optimizes their operations with a Cart.com partnership

Since partnering with Cart.com in 2012, Tea Collection, a San Francisco-based children's clothing brand, has significantly improved operational efficiency. With over 20 years in business, Tea Collection faced challenges that impacted growth, including the pandemic, excess inventory, rising freight costs, unpredictable shipping schedules and reduced inventory orders from brick-and-mortar retail partners. These issues required a flexible and strategic partner to provide tailored solutions.

Tea Collection’s extensive experience and strategic insights played a key role in the success of this partnership. Their expertise in SKU planning, inbound and outbound forecasting and tracking, complemented by their ability to design and market premium children’s clothing, fostered a deeply engaged customer base. Beyond operations, Tea Collection’s core values—celebrating the beauty found in cultures around the world and building meaningful connections with their customers—added depth and purpose to the collaboration. Their commitment to quality and creativity is evident in their responsibly made, one-of-a-kind designs, ensuring each piece is crafted to last and be passed down from child to child.

What began as a typical vendor-client relationship soon became a dynamic partnership, with both teams aligning efforts to achieve shared goals. Karen Bottaro, Head of Product Development and Supply Chains, noted, “Cart has brought on a strong team of talented individuals, and communication across the board has been clear and effective.” Through strategic collaboration, Tea Collection experienced optimized warehouse operations, reduced storage costs and navigated shipping challenges. Ultimately, this partnership exemplified how shared goals, trust and adaptability can drive lasting success and operational efficiency.

Partnering up to improve B2B order processing efficiency

After experiencing delivery delays, stockouts and unexpected costs, Tea Collection collaborated with Cart.com to optimize B2B order efficiency and develop a more flexible shipping strategy. Unpredictable shipping schedules, which could extend from days to weeks, made it challenging for B2B customers to run their sales programs smoothly, impacting their relationship with the brand. To resolve this, Cart.com offered flexible inbound receiving and order processing solutions tailored to meet B2B SLAs. This included scalable staffing to accommodate fluctuating shipping demands and adaptable processes that enabled retailers and B2B boutiques to receive their orders faster, improving fulfillment times and strengthening customer satisfaction.

Having a strategic partner helped identify key solutions that can be customized to the brand’s challenges and needs. Highlighting the issues, such as unstable shipping schedules, was only part of the equation. By elevating their channels of communication and coordinating closely at every step of the process, both partners were able to flexibly adapt when needed and plan ahead effectively. As a result, Tea Collection’s target SLAs for B2B orders were reduced from 5 days to 48 hours, boosting B2B order efficiency by 60%.

Strategically managing excess inventory while minimizing warehousing expenses

Tea Collection faced challenges in managing costs related to slow-moving inventory, particularly during the pandemic when demand from major retailers like Nordstrom Rack and Zulily dropped significantly. Excess inventory tied up capital, occupied valuable warehouse space and increased carrying costs, which affected the company's profitability. Without a clear inventory strategy, these hidden costs limited cash flow and hindered growth. The difficulty in managing dead stock highlighted the need for a strategic shift in purchasing, inventory turnover and a flexible fulfillment partner to implement the plan.

Tea Collection partnered with Cart.com to assess active and reserve storage usage, improving inventory turnover and reducing storage costs. By consolidating SKUs, optimizing storage and leveraging new sell-off partners and initiatives like sample sales, Cart.com reduced storage space by 32% from 124,000 to 84,000 cubic sq. ft. and decreased reserve pallets by 75% from 800 to 200. This strategic shift allowed Tea Collection to manage inventory more efficiently and diversify its approach.

What it’s like to work with Cart.com

Collaboration and transparency drive efficiency and growth

The competitive children’s clothing industry demands a swift, reliable operational system with the flexibility to adapt to market shifts and retailer needs. By adjusting production and shipping schedules, managing fluctuating demand and leveraging technology, brands can stay ahead of evolving consumer preferences. Tea Collection’s partnership with Cart.com exemplifies how clear communication and collaboration can lead to operational success and innovation, allowing them to respond to planned events and unforeseen challenges without compromising efficiency or customer satisfaction.

Cart.com’s commitment to transparency played a key role in the partnership’s success. With frequent and accurate warehousing and logistics reporting, open communication and a deep understanding of Tea Collection’s goals, we fostered a truly collaborative relationship. This trust and alignment not only enabled faster decision-making but also allowed for the seamless execution of operational improvements—much like how Tea Collection’s strategic approach to SKU planning and forecasting ensures efficiency across every aspect of their business. By combining operational excellence with shared vision, this partnership became a model for sustainable growth and adaptability. As Karen Bottaro noted, “Taking a holistic approach to warehouse management has resulted in more efficient cycle counts and improved resource allocation.”

From optimizing warehousing and shipping processes to finding cost savings, Cart.com’s support has been integral to Tea Collection’s growth. Our expert guidance helped the brand navigate the shifting landscape of the pandemic and improve operational efficiency. As Karen described it, “Cart.com brings expertise across all functional areas, from logistics to marketplace, ensuring partners benefit from best practices at every level. The client benefits from this level of expertise.”

Through this collaborative partnership, Tea Collection strengthened its supply chain, improved efficiency and laid the groundwork for sustainable growth, demonstrating that with the right support, long-term success is achievable even in a fast-changing market. With a more agile fulfillment operation, they plan to explore new markets and use their increased savings from cost-cutting measures to manufacture new collections that will delight and beautify their ever-discerning customer base. The partnership with Cart.com has laid a strong foundation for Tea Collection to scale its business while maintaining its brand promise and adhering to exceptional service standards.