Kardinal supports Vente-unique in digitizing and optimizing their business operations. Vente-unique, an e-commerce website specialized in furniture and decoration, has optimized its urban delivery planning using Kardinal.
Sébastien Bellone, Director of Transport and Reverse Logistics at Vente-unique, answered our questions to share with us how the project was implemented.
Kardinal: Hello Sebastien, can you tell us a little more about you and Vente-unique?
Sébastien Bellone: Hello, I’m Sébastien Bellone, Director of Transport and Reverse Logistics at Vente-unique.com. We are a pure-player online retailer in the field of furniture, we sell everything that can furnish a house: sofas, bedding, furniture… The company was created in 2006 and now employs around 450 people and has achieved a turnover of more than 165 million euros in Europe. We distribute our products in 11 countries from our warehouse in Amblainville in the Ile-de-France region in France.
K: What were the challenges that led Vente-unique to start this project with Kardinal?
SB: In June 2022, we launched our project to bring our fleet of vehicles in-house to deliver our customers throughout the Paris region. Before the launch of Vente-unique Delivery, we were working with subcontractors (with whom we still work). The purpose of this internal fleet is to improve the quality of service we provide to our customers and to better collect their feedback so we can adapt our offer. As a pure player, we do not have any physical stores. Our only contact with our customers is through our drivers.
In the field of furniture, we face very specific constraints: a delivery can last from 5 minutes to 2 hours depending on the service or the goods. We can make a delivery at the customer’s doorstep as well as assembling an entire piece of furniture. So one delivery is rarely comparable to another. We really needed a tool that could take these details into account.
K: Why did you choose Kardinal's optimization software solution?
SB: We knew we needed a tool to optimize our fleet because our ambitions are not limited to the Paris region: we are also going to expand this service in Europe. We needed a tool like Kardinal to help us define the number and type of trucks we needed and their capacity. We wanted the most advanced tool possible. To do this, we looked at several similar software companies. Kardinal was the one that most closely matched our specific requirements and adapted its tool to our needs.
K: What are the different steps in the optimization process with Kardinal?
SB: Our customer journey begins with the customer placing an order on our website and choosing a delivery slot. All the orders arrive in Kardinal’s optimization engine which, by analyzing the slots, the addresses and the size of the goods, determines the best possible routes for the next day and the day after. The drivers then arrive at the warehouse in the morning and load their trucks to start their routes.
On the driver’s app, Everest – another French tech company – displays the routes provided by Kardinal which they can also follow on their smartphone. Everything is specified for the drivers: which floor the sofa is to be delivered to, at what time, if it needs to be assembled, etc. In the Paris region, we organize 4 rounds per day with 4 trucks and 8 drivers who deliver on average between 50 and 60 customers.
K: What benefits have you seen since using Kardinal's software solution?
SB: The goal for us was to improve the quality perceived by our customers and that starts with realistic delivery routes. This allows our drivers to focus on providing a higher quality service rather than running behind on time slots. After 15 days, one significant result of using Kardinal’s solution was a 20-point improvement in our NPS (rating given by our customers), which is huge!
We can better adapt our routes, and our drivers generally make 12 deliveries a day with less stress. Kardinal takes into account road traffic history in the Paris region to adapt the length of the routes and thus comply with the working hours of our drivers, who go home on time or even early. Kardinal’s optimization has also allowed us to improve time slot compliance by 30%.
K: What are the next challenges for Vente-unique?
SB: This year, we launched marketplaces and a fulfillment offer that will significantly increase our sales volumes in the years to come and thus require increasingly refined route optimization. Vente-unique is also committed to the Fret21 initiative which aims to reduce our CO2 emissions. This is achieved by optimizing our routes and reducing the number of kilometers we drive and the number of full trucks.