Style Meets Efficiency Kenneth Cole's Smart Savings With Shopify EDI Connections

If you’ve ever wrestled with the headache of ecommerce logistics, you’re not alone. Managing orders, juggling inventory, and ensuring seamless customer experiences can feel like a never-ending battle. But for Kenneth Cole’s head of DTC ecommerce and marketplace partners, Mitul Patel, the right technology made all the difference.

“We were with a third-party ecommerce company for a few years, and you tend to lose that brand control… That was [when] we reached out to Flxpoint,” says Patel.

Kenneth Cole, the iconic American fashion brand, operates as a licensing house with more than 30 strategic partners. That means a single customer order might involve multiple vendors—buy a pair of shoes, a handbag, and a piece of luggage, and you’re suddenly dealing with three different fulfillment sources. Coordinating all of that efficiently was becoming a challenge.

“We needed something that we could have more control over. We needed something [where] we could integrate partners, integrate licensees, integrate warehouses,” Patel explains. “Because as we grow, as we scale, we’re going to be bringing on more and more.”

The company had relied on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to manage inventory and orders, but the process was slow and cumbersome. “I’ve worked with a lot of competitors,” Patel notes, and when asked why he chose Flxpoint he continued, “I think the biggest turning point for Flxpoint for me is the capabilities that you guys have outside of EDI. You can connect API, you can connect SFTP files—whatever it [takes] to get somebody up and running quickly.”

“We’ve had EDI people on our IT team that, after they saw Flxpoint, they were just absolutely amazed… the ease of use and intuitive platform was great,” Patel says. The primary issue with legacy EDI was its complexity and lack of flexibility. “We work with all the retail partners, you know, like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Everybody still uses EDI. It’s a very old school format. It requires hardcore programming.,” Patel explains.

Flxpoint provided a modern automated alternative that allowed them to scale faster and easier. This flexibility allowed Kenneth Cole to scale operations without being constrained by the slow-moving nature of traditional EDI testing cycles.

Kenneth Cole operates its direct-to-consumer business on Shopify Plus, ensuring a streamlined experience for customers. “We’re Shopify Plus. We don’t do any order routing within Shopify, but we were looking for an external solution where we could do a little bit more with it,” Patel says. The need for enhanced reporting, inventory tracking, and order management led them to seek an integration with Flxpoint.

One of the major advantages of using Shopify Plus in conjunction with Flxpoint is the ability to bridge traditional EDI workflows with modern ecommerce automation. Shopify gives Kenneth Cole flexibility on the front end, while Flxpoint integrates them with multiple warehouses and partners on the back end. This synergy has allowed Kenneth Cole to scale its online business without sacrificing efficiency or customer experience.

Making the switch to a new technology is never without its challenges, but Patel’s team found the transition surprisingly smooth. “But working with your team, I believe it was Ryan Garcia, who was our onboarding specialist—It was a great experience. There’s always going to be bugs. But Ryan was very quick to fix them, very quick to follow up and get them done. So it’s one of the best experiences that [I’ve] had working with a tech partner, especially in an EDI phase.”

Patel is quick to point out that onboarding was not just about plugging in a new system—it was about making sure his team could fully utilize it. “She was very hands on. We had our touch bases. She worked with each individual partner. So she was the project manager, as well as doing all the integrations with our team, as well as she was teaching our team,”  Patel says.

Since implementing Flxpoint, Patel has seen a major improvement in efficiency. “While it was being outsourced, we didn’t touch much of it. It was really just managed. Merchant of Record was a third-party company. They were handling all order processing. We were trying to provide them [with] inventory. We didn’t have visibility into what type of inventory they would need just in time,” Patel explains.

And it’s not just about speed—it’s about visibility. “One of my roles is [overseeing] customer service… so looking at order routing and [checking] where it stands in the process. I can log in and see it all really easily,” Patel says. “I have no EDI experience, I don’t need to go into an 846 inventory file. I do sometimes just to make sure of it. But the visibility is there. And I think that’s the most important thing.”

Pre-orders, which Kenneth Cole had never been able to do before, are now a reality. “We launched—after many, many years—the Women’s Apparel Line… and we officially did pre-orders,” Patel explains. “We were able to hold the orders within Flxpoint without sending them to our partner system. Which we’ve never done in our system ever.”