Sport Okay wins with AutoStore™

Sport Okay is an e-commerce company specializing in Alpine clothing and sports equipment for climbers, cyclists, skiers, and runners. It’s located in the heart of the Tyrolean mountains in the city of Innsbruck, Austria.

The company offers customers between 200 and 300 top brands in its online shop, including Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, Chillaz, Mammut, Haglöfs, K2, Martini, Deuter, Dainese, Salomon, Leki, Löffler, Ortovox, and SCOTT. In addition, it’s one of the first online shops to show its products using 3-D product presentation.

Sport Okay was founded in 2013 and currently operates in Germany, Austria, Italy, and 15 other countries.

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Next-day delivery a priority

About 95% of online orders have to fulfill customers’ expectations of next-day delivery. This expectation was one of the main reasons the company chose the AutoStore warehouse automation system, empowered by Hörmann Logistik.

“With the new AutoStore system, we can now achieve 100% next-day delivery three to four days a week in Germany and Austria. On Mondays, for example, it’s often more difficult due to the many weekend orders,” says Konrad Plankensteiner, Managing Director of Sport Okay.

The company has invested in a new logistics center in Innsbruck, which will be used as a central distribution warehouse in the future.

They decided to install AutoStore in two construction phases.

Unlike many other AutoStore systems, the one at Sport Okay occupies two floors:

• The Grid containing the goods is on the second floor.
• Workstations for incoming goods and order picking and shipping, which employees do, are situated on the ground floor.

The AutoStore system at Sport Okay

The specifics of the first construction phase of the system at the distribution warehouse in Innsbruck are as follows:

• The aluminum grid in which the goods are stored covers just about 680 sqm (7,320 sf).
• 22 Robots glide over the Grid, using grippers to pick inventory Bins from the storage system below.
• Goods are stored in 27,537 Bins, which can hold a max weight load of up to 30kg (66lbs). Each Bin is designed to accommodate one SKU or multiple product lines.
• Bins are stacked on 16 levels, with the most frequently ordered goods stored in the top layers for fast retrieval.
• There are six SwingPorts.
• The system can handle 168 storage and return runs per day.
• The system can manage 4,000 picks per day or 400 picks per hour.

After the second construction phase, the Grid will double in size, with 44 Robots, 55,000 Bins, and 12 Ports. In its entirety, the system will be able to manage 336 storage and return runs and 8,000 picks per day (800 per hour). This extension can be achieved without disruption to existing operations.

The benefits of AutoStore for Sport Okay

One of the most significant benefits of AutoStore — and part of why the team chose it —  is that the system can be tailor-made according to Sport Okay’s specific needs. Customers are now also satisfied with the quick order fulfillment, and the system has easily accommodated the growth in the number of orders.

The system is geared for future expansion and is compact, as it maximizes the use of existing storage space. It’s also highly economical in that its energy use is low.