WinterSilks and Venus Swimwear have created a working solution to the challenge of running a seasonal business.

By Alicia Orr Suman

The company has what Scott terms a “dynamic picking floor.” One shelf may have swimwear tops today and swimwear bottoms next week.

Here’s how the order-processing flow works: Goods (SKUs) are kept on the picking floor (floor 1), and reserve stock is kept on floor 2. Using state-of-the-art, handheld radio frequency scanners, warehouse staffers scan the box of goods and then scan the location and the barcodes on the boxes. Says Scott, “As a box of goods is moved to a shelf, we scan the barcode on the box and scan the shelf where it’s placed. The computer then knows it’s there, and it directs the pickers to that location for picking.” Orders are released for picking by the computer in groups designed to be picked together.