Case Studies > Hibbett Sports Relies on Transportation Management Technology to Support Consistent Growth

Hibbett Sports Relies on Transportation Management Technology to Support Consistent Growth

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

MercuryGate TMS
Mojo
ezVision

Tech Stack

Transportation Management System (TMS)
Optimization Software
Data Analytics

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Transportation Management Systems (TMS)

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods
Retail

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Fleet Management
Predictive Maintenance
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration
Training

About The Customer

Hibbett Sports, Inc. is a full-line sporting goods retailer headquartered in Birmingham, AL., operating stores in small and mid-sized markets, predominantly in the South, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. The retailer provides a broad assortment of quality branded athletic footwear, apparel, and equipment with a high level of customer service. As of October 2017, the company operated a total of 1,082 retail stores comprised of Hibbett Sports stores and Sports Additions athletic shoe stores in 33 states. Hibbett has been on a growth trajectory since the early 90s, consistently opening several new stores every year. With that growth, the company’s inbound shipments from a large list of vendors have also increased exponentially, as has its need for greater consolidation.

The Challenge

Hibbett Sports needed one system to capture all transportation and logistics data, and required better visibility for consolidating and optimizing its inbound shipments, with an end goal of also realizing cost reductions. Managing the shipments of merchandise to stock its growing number of stores can be a complex and challenging task, which led Hibbett to begin researching a Transportation Management System (TMS) in 2012. As part of the research phase, Hibbett identified a need to capture all transportation and logistics data in one system. The company also required better visibility for consolidating and optimizing its inbound shipments, ultimately with a goal of realizing cost reductions. Additionally, as a result of a supply chain analysis, Hibbett discovered how cumbersome it was to gather and evaluate data from different systems and realized that a TMS was necessary to simplify the process.

The Solution

Hibbett selected the MercuryGate TMS to provide the foundation for its transportation logistics management. The TMS provides Hibbett with critical information and analytics to make informed decisions that affect the entire supply chain. Hibbett is also using MercuryGate’s transportation optimization solution, Mojo, to analyze shipments, rates, and constraints to produce realistic load plans. With the recent opening of a California-based consolidation center, Hibbett is now keeping loads at various providers’ warehouses for up to several days. The MercuryGate TMS provides Hibbett with critical information, including shipment dates, to give the company the visibility they need to determine which loads will go best together. The increased visibility also enables Hibbett to create more backhaul opportunities with its own fleet drivers or its vendors, resulting in additional cost savings. Additionally, Hibbett has been able to add its suppliers into the TMS which makes scheduling of shipments much easier.

Operational Impact

The MercuryGate TMS provides Hibbett with critical information and analytics to make informed decisions that affect the entire supply chain.
The increased visibility enables Hibbett to create more backhaul opportunities with its own fleet drivers or its vendors, resulting in additional cost savings.
Hibbett has been able to add its suppliers into the TMS which makes scheduling of shipments much easier.
The company plans to continue to increase its Mojo utilization for pulling reports into the system for additional optimization, including optimizing outbound fleet drivers to ensure routes are set up as efficiently as possible.
Hibbett is currently in the midst of implementing ezVision, MercuryGate’s latest user interface that is designed to create an optimized workflow and put more critical information on one screen.

Quantitative Benefit

The company has realized over $1 million in savings.
Hibbett has been able to cut inbound freight costs by more than 30% in the last year by using the Bid Board option within the TMS.