COTTON ON GROUP

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Drawing from its experience in the Australian market , Cotton On Group has replicated its e-commerce and supply chain solutions for the past several years in different markets . This has meant it could be smoothly adopted in regional markets in Africa . Marais points out how the company ’ s South African distribution centres are efficient and lean to make orders easier to tackle . “ Our distribution centres are set up to complete our online orders internally which made the execution of online a lot easier to manage ,” Marais notes . “ We ’ ve also got an online platform that has been tested in Australia but which has been adapted to our local market . This has meant that we have been able to quickly deliver that customer experience that people have come to expect from Cotton On .

“ It ’ s supply chain 101 : if you add complexity it slows down the operation ,” he adds . “ So , we ’ ve managed to keep our business relatively simple . It allows us to be agile when adapting our strategy to meet the demands of e-commerce , for example .”

With plans to expand to Botswana over the coming months , it ’ s no question that Cotton On group has fine-tuned its strategy

NOVEMBER 2018