SkatePro: Growing e-commerce requires efficient warehousing solution

At Europe’s Largest Skate Shop, SkatePro, E-Commerce Growth Drives Investment in Warehouse Efficiency

At Europe’s largest skate shop, SkatePro, e-commerce and export activities are experiencing tremendous growth. To keep pace with increasing demand, the company has continuously invested in additional warehouse capacity and, most recently, implemented a new online scanning solution that ensures fast and accurate product registration.

More and more consumers are shopping online, making e-commerce one of the fastest-growing sectors in retail. This trend is also clearly visible at SkatePro, the e-commerce company founded in 1996 by Jakob Høy Biegel. What began as a hobby project has since evolved into a leading online retailer within action sports, achieving steady growth year after year.

SkatePro sells equipment online in 26 countries, employs 160 people, and has 22 nationalities represented within its customer service team. The company has also won the Danish E-commerce Award five times. In addition to its online business, SkatePro operates two physical stores located in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

An Efficient Warehouse Is Essential

The rapid growth of e-commerce is also having a major impact on the logistics industry. More companies require additional warehouse space and are implementing solutions that ensure efficient inventory registration and order fulfillment. For SkatePro, maintaining an efficient warehouse operation is crucial to keeping up with the rapid growth of online sales. The company has continuously expanded its warehouse capacity and now operates 11,500 square meters of warehouse space.“Over the years, we have built a scalable setup and business model that allow us to serve more and more countries. Today, we ship more than 700,000 parcels annually, so it is absolutely essential that we run our warehouse as efficiently as possible. Products must be in stock and ready to be shipped as quickly as possible,” says Carsten Schmidt, CEO and co-owner of SkatePro.

The company takes great pride in its impressive growth journey, which has been built around a strong customer-focused culture. According to Carsten Schmidt, success ultimately comes down to listening to customers and continuously adapting the business:“We are naturally proud of the journey we are on, but above all, we are proud of our customers. It is about listening to consumers and identifying new market trends. We live and breathe what we do, which is why we continuously adapt our business to meet our customers’ needs and continue inspiring them.”

Smart Workflows Increase Warehouse Efficiency

At SkatePro, the goal is to work both smartly and efficiently in every aspect of the business. As part of this approach, the company has invested in a warehouse solution featuring mobile PDA devices (Bluebird EF401), allowing employees to place the scanners in an arm-mounted holder so they do not need to put them down while working. This enables faster and more efficient workflows. As an alternative, the scanners can also be used with a pistol grip.“Operating in 26 countries requires highly efficient logistics processes and strong warehouse management. In collaboration with Delfi Technologies, we have implemented an online warehouse solution with mobile scanners that enable us to register goods as quickly as possible. This allows us to work smarter,” explains Carsten Schmidt.

SkatePro uses the warehouse solution from Delfi Technologies for goods receiving, order picking, and ongoing inventory counting. The scanners run an application that displays a website developed by SkatePro itself—a kind of intranet containing the company’s key warehouse management system (WMS) functions. In collaboration with Delfi Technologies, the software solution was customized to operate as an app on the mobile warehouse devices, tailored precisely to SkatePro’s requirements.“Everything is about maximizing efficiency so we can deliver orders on time. Our online scanning solution is integrated directly with our own systems, making it relatively simple to scale whenever we add a new country. It is a flexible system, and we can adapt the solution ourselves as our needs evolve,” says Bjørn Sørensen, IT Administrator at SkatePro.

Looking ahead, SkatePro has ambitious growth plans and intends to continue expanding its international presence. The company plans to further develop its online business and enter additional markets in the years to come.