Booktopia Ships Books Faster and Easier with Zebra’s TC8000

As Australia’s leading online book retailer, Booktopia dispatches more than 3.3 million parcels annually to its customers across Australia and New Zealand. During peak periods, the online retailer has shipped 41,800 units in a day. Booktopia’s technology decisions are focused entirely on enabling it to efficiently ship a high volume of books from its warehouse to fulfil orders and maintain outstanding customer service.

As Australia’s leading online book retailer, Booktopia needed to uphold its reputation by deploying sophisticated and productive technology at its 13,000 square meter warehouse.  When the incumbent, dated Windows CE mobile technology threatened the efficiency of Booktopia’s picking and put away operation, the company needed a solution that would complement its custom warehouse management system (WMS) and give it the flexibility to innovate.

Importantly, Booktopia required a solution that would also improve staff satisfaction, and therefore boost efficiency and productivity of its warehouse operations.

In 2020, Booktopia engaged with Zebra Technologies Corporation, to deploy Zebra’s TC8000 touch mobile computers, an android-based mobile computer with fast scanning capabilities.

“With work shifts stretching up to four consecutive hours per shift, our frontline workers needed mobile computers with a dependable battery life and scanning accuracy,” said Tim Rimington, Infrastructure Manager at Booktopia. “Additionally, we needed mobile computers that were rugged, lightweight, ergonomically-designed and easy to use. We were delighted that Zebra’s mobile computing solution fulfilled these requirements.”

Is this the way of the future?

According to Zebra’s Warehousing Vision Study, forward-thinking companies like Booktopia are turning to technology to cope with the growth of the on-demand economy.

“Up to 77 percent of them agree that equipping their workers with technology is the best way to introduce automation in the warehouse”, said Tom Christodoulou, Regional Director of Australia and New Zealand, Zebra Technologies.

The Future - Improved productivity, accuracy, staff satisfaction and potential to innovate

Zebra’s TC8000 devices will continue to enable high productivity levels and staff satisfaction across Booktopia’s warehouse operations. By leveraging on Zebra’s TC8000, Booktopia joins the 77 percent of forward-thinking companies that are equipping their workers with technology to achieve better results. They will boost Booktopia’s capacity to process orders in greater volumes and see it remain a market leader in eCommerce.

As an entirely online retailer, Booktopia is reliant on technology for its success, and must stay ahead of the technology curve. The next step for Booktopia is wearable devices. These will produce greater time savings than handheld mobile computers. Booktopia has invested over $20 million dollars in automation solutions across its warehouse, and the company plans to increase investment in the next few years.

See Zebra’s TC8000 in action at Booktopia here.