Client Introduction

The Hut Group (THG) is a global e-commerce technology group and brand owner.

THG boasts a diverse product portfolio across beauty, health, wellness, fashion, sports, accessories, and more. THG sells both brand-owned and third-party products on its proprietary e-commerce platform. To this end, it partners with numerous brands globally and has to routinely onboard new suppliers. As a technology-driven innovator, THG sought to revolutionize how brands connect to a worldwide market. THG wanted to digitize its supplier onboarding to align with this vision.

Business Requirement

As a vertically integrated business, THG emphasizes every business function, including manufacturing, warehousing, marketing, and fulfillment. Optimizing each of these functions was vital to maintaining quality.

However, THG has also partnered with other businesses to provide its customers with a more diverse array of product choices. These businesses were distributed globally, and each had its style of operation. THG onboarded these businesses onto its e-commerce platform before selling their products.

Onboarding new businesses (suppliers) onto the platform took a lot of work. Extensive quality checks had to be carried out, and policy compliance was ensured before partnering with a new supplier.

Traditionally this process was carried out manually. Details were captured in Excel documents, and the approval team collaborated via email.

The apparent limitations of this approach were

Onboarding Delays

Manually carrying out compliance and policy checks cost valuable time and resources. This led to delays in THG supplier onboarding which ultimately reduced product sales.

Quality Control Concerns

Lapses in quality control and policy compliance due to the manual process risked the onboarding of substandard suppliers onto THG’s e-commerce platform. Products sold through such suppliers negatively impacted brand value.

Reduced Visibility

With the current process, leadership lacked a centralized source to access information regarding supplier onboarding. Individually tracking each onboarding cost the company valuable time and resources.

Security Concerns

Without a proper system in place, managing access to information according to user roles and privileges was not possible. This led to information sharing and security concerns regarding supplier information.

Inefficient Document Management

Policy compliance documents and other information shared by suppliers had to be securely stored and processed. Different versions of these documents also had to be managed for future use. Managing all these documents manually was inefficient at its best.

Inadequate Controls and Onboarding Delays

The Solution

In line with THG’s global vision, Cloudesign created a supplier onboarding solution that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. The solution supported easier vertical integration of suppliers while ensuring strict conformance to quality and policy guidelines.

Along with end-to-end digitization, the solution integrated many modern-day capabilities that enhanced the platform’s scalability and process visibility. Despite being developed within a competitive timeframe, the platform boasted cutting-edge capabilities like

End-to-End Digitization

The entire supplier onboarding process was completely digitized, including registration, document submission, compliance checks, approval, and onboarding. This allowed streamlined execution of processes and simplified collaboration.

Rapid Onboarding

Pivoting away from a manual onboarding process allowed the team to effortlessly onboard new suppliers. The approval team could onboard suppliers globally and collaborate effortlessly with their local counterparts via the new platform.

Defined Processes

Digitizing the onboarding process resulted in more control and clear process definition. By implementing process checks, the team could ensure that critical process steps were not missed and that every onboarded supplier met every compliance requirement.

Cloud Integration

By integrating the supplier onboarding module with the AWS cloud platform, onboarding was made universally accessible 24*7. This helped THG’s global operations by ensuring continuous availability to supplier onboarding across geographical boundaries.

One-stop Document Management

Managing different versions of all the documents that suppliers submitted was quite a hassle. These documents had to be further maintained for future auditing. By implementing an online document management solution, Cloudesign put an end to all of these concerns.

Secure User Access

Sensitive documentation information concerning the suppliers had to be securely safeguarded. By employing best-in-class security practices like end-to-end encryption, HTTPS connection, secured login, and OWASP security principles, THG’s digital onboarding platform completely secured supplier information.

Role-based Authentication

The new platform boasted role-based access and included different user privileges for suppliers, buyers, and other roles related to policy and compliance.By strictly enforcing role-based privileges, the new platform streamlined collaboration and supercharged productivity.

Comprehensive Reporting

Interactive reporting mechanisms allowed the leadership team to view the most important supplier onboarding metrics at a glance. Formats like line charts and bar graphs allowed onboarding team members to identify anomalies and fix onboarding issues at the earliest.

Faster Scaling

With an end-to-end digital platform and a comprehensive cloud infrastructure backing availability, the team experienced all-round availability and easier scaling. THG’s global expansion became significantly easier with a platform that simplified onboarding new partners.

Technology

Our Specialized Technology Toolkit

Back-end

Front-end

DevOps

Business Benefits

A fully digital supplier onboarding platform aligned perfectly with THG’s vision of becoming the world’s leading digital e-commerce company. With the deployment of the new platform, THG enjoyed tangible business benefits like: