How GladGirl Experienced Exponential Growth with Finale Inventory
Learn how omnichannel beauty brand, GladGirl, transformed their warehouse operations, as they managed over 3000 SKUs and improved their order fulfillment processes, cutting down on their return rate by over 40%.
Key results after using Finale:
40% decrease in refunded orders
3 hours saved per day on picking and packing
15 hours saved per week processing orders
GladGirl is a well-known beauty brand that specializes in professional eyelash and brow beauty products. They have a physical presence in Los Angeles, CA, and Bedford, TX, and an online Shopify store serving professional estheticians and cosmetologists nationwide. Since its inception in 1981, the company has faced several growing business challenges, such as accurately managing inventory over multiple sales channels and profitably balancing teams, products, and their warehouse.
Let’s explore how Finale Inventory contributed to GladGirl’s success.
Learn how GladGirl’s co-founder and CEO Brian Green improved his warehouse operations with Finale.
Trouble in the Warehouse
Before Finale Inventory, GladGirl struggled with inefficiency and accuracy issues in their order processing, resulting in overselling on Shopify and a high rate of returns. The company initially responded by hiring additional staff to manage customer service demands, including calls, tickets, and reshipments. While this helped their team in the short term, it added to their operational burden and costs.
GladGirl’s previous system, Veeqo, which was acquired by Amazon in 2022, lacked the capability to transfer stock and struggled to support shipping processes aligned with GladGirl’s workflows, further hindering their operational efficiency and affecting customer satisfaction. Further, they were aware of inefficient picking and packing processes that they knew cost them precious time and money to support. At the recommendation of ShipStation, Brian Greene, GladGirl’s Co-Founder and CEO, happily opted to try Finale to better align his team, their data, and workflows.
Enter Finale’s Inventory Management System
From the onset, Finale’s inventory tracking capabilities significantly impacted GladGirl’s operations, reducing overselling and expediting workflows. With real-time and accurate data flowing from their warehouse to Finale’s dashboards to stock reflected in Shopify, GladGirl saw a 40% decrease in return orders with Finale compared to their prior track record with Veeqo.
Now, with Finale as their warehouse data and workflow hub, GladGirl experienced fewer returns coming in, fewer customer service calls to manage, and more efficient warehouse processes.
Greene emphasizes the importance of the Finale, stating, “There used to be tables full of error totes due to inaccurate stock quantities, stock takes, and the latency between channels, but since implementing Finale in our workflow, our error rates have dropped drastically.”
That allowed Greene and the rest of the GladGirl team to focus more energy on product creation, their customers, and more profitably managing the business.
One component to more profitably and more efficiently managing the business stems from the streamlined purchasing workflows in Finale. With Finale and ShipStation’s robust integration, GladGirl optimized their order fulfillment, resulting in a significant time savings of 3 hours per day on picking and packing. Further, the time it took to verify an order went from one minute to five seconds, saving more than 15 hours per week when processing orders.
Other efficiencies came with GladGirl’s warehouse manager having more time to focus on accurate monitoring of stock levels and more timely reordering. With Greene also involved with the full purchase flow, he is now confident that their purchase orders cover what they need and are issued when needed.
As GladGirl explored the software further, they got more innovative by using Finale’s QR codes in their physical stores. These “shelf-talker” QR codes link to the product pages on their Shopify store, allowing in-store customers to get more product information and help make informed purchase decisions. Soon, they hope to use the software to be able to “pull down” pricing changes, saving the in-store staff even more time.
Lastly, he appreciates that Finale offers custom screens for the various members of his team that are separate from his so they can focus on the most pertinent data while also protecting some of the more confidential business data that he can still access.
Gone are the days when they would have to sort through tables full of returned orders and delayed stock syncs like they experienced with Veeqo. Thanks to the holistic solution with Finale, Shopify, Shopify POS, and ShipStation, GladGirl’s operations are stronger than ever thanks to Finale’s real-time data syncs, robust features, intuitive interface, and responsive support team.
GladGirl’s Continued Success
GladGirl’s success story with Finale Inventory marks a significant turning point for the company. The implementation of Finale Inventory’s solution has increased efficiency, accuracy, and scalability, which have proven to be instrumental in GladGirl’s continued growth and success in the competitive beauty industry. The intuitive user interface of Finale has made it easy to train new staff, which is a critical piece to their plans to expand new retail locations like Miami, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, DC, Chicago, and New York in the coming years. Something they are able to do so confidently as a result of using Finale Inventory.
See for yourself how Finale can help improve your operations and help your team work at their best.
“The core of maturity, that I see, is starting with a unified view of inventory. I’ve got to be able to accurately represent what do I have, make sure that I know where it’s located so I can get it to my customers quickly.”
— Troy Graham, Descartes
What is the first thing I should fix if I want to scale operations?
Start with a unified view of inventory. The core of maturity starts with being able to accurately represent what you do have and make sure that you know where it’s located to get it to customers quickly. Without a unified view across your warehouses, 3PLs, and vendors, you cannot make the best decisions because you don’t have the best information at hand.
With Inventory Visibility, Businesses Can Make Smarter Allocation Decisions
Once inventory is centralized, businesses can move from reactive updates to intentional allocation. They can decide how much inventory to expose to each channel, when to use buffers, which marketplaces need extra protection, and how seasonality or campaign performance influence availability.
Once I know what inventory I have, how should I decide where to make it available?
Inventory allocation should reflect where orders are coming from, where marketing is working, and which channels carry the most risk. Once you know what you have and where it is located, you can think more strategically using centralized inventory to make prioritization happen automatically. One fertilizer company lost a little over 5,000 orders in one weekend because someone manually uploaded the wrong available inventory to Amazon.
Better Inventory Data Improves Planning, Purchasing, and Growth Bets
Better visibility turns inventory data into a planning tool. With insight into sales velocity, inventory levels, vendors, and channel performance, businesses can make more informed replenishment decisions, avoid overbuying, and test new product lines or vendor-supplied inventory without taking on unnecessary risk.
“You have to have unified inventory to know how to price your products just at that basic level. I can’t price my products if I don’t know the true cost to get it.”
— Mike Bernico, Flxpoint
How does better inventory data help me make smarter buying decisions?
It lets you measure whether your plan is working before you commit more capital. A key question becomes: “Did my plan work? Am I overleveraged in one place or another?” Centralized systems can also help businesses test new product lines or vendor relationships by looking at sales velocity by channel, allowing them to take risks in a calculated and measured way.
Intelligent Order Routing Turns Inventory Complexity Into Automation
Once inventory and supplier data are reliable, businesses can automate fulfillment decisions. Orders can be routed based on cost, speed, margin, location, warehouse priority, vendor fallback, split-shipment rules, or customer expectations. This helps hybrid fulfillment scale because every order does not need a manual review.
How do I decide the best way to fulfill each order?
There is no single answer, which is why order routing needs to account for the context of each order. Intelligent order routing is not just sending an order to someone who has stock; it is taking each and every order and treating it like its own unique use case. Depending on the order, the business may prioritize speed, margin, an internal warehouse, vendor fallback, or preventing split shipments.
Supplier Inventory Sync Extends Inventory Beyond the Four Walls
For hybrid fulfillment to work, supplier inventory needs to become part of the operating model. Supplier sync does not always require advanced technology; it can happen through automated files, FTP, email, APIs, EDI, or ecommerce storefront integrations. The key is replacing manual updates with automated, reliable supplier data.
Can supplier inventory really be treated like part of my own inventory?
Yes, but the goal is not necessarily to force every supplier into a complex integration. Real-time supplier sync can be defined as any way to get an automated update from a supplier, such as Google Sheets, email, FTP, API, EDI, or ecommerce storefront connections. The key is that accurate supplier stock is foundational. If you don’t have an accurate view of what is in stock with your suppliers, you cannot tell your sales channel accurately what’s available.
Exception-Based Workflows Keep Humans Focused Where They Matter
Automation does not remove people from the process. Mature operations let technology handle the routine majority while humans focus on exceptions, such as high-value orders, fraud risk, compliance requirements, restricted products, export rules, or unusual fulfillment scenarios.
If my business has special cases, can automation still work?
Yes. The point is not to automate every possible decision; it is to automate the routine work and surface the exceptions. Businesses should not have to look at every single order. Instead, technology can highlight high-value orders, risky locations, or compliance requirements. The goal is to take care of the 80% of workflows that are obvious while still allowing human review when specific exceptions arise.
The Right Inventory Technology Should Fit the Business, Not Overwhelm It
Software decisions should be based on business fit, not popularity, feature volume, or broad “all-in-one” promises. Growing ecommerce businesses should identify their highest-impact bottleneck, prioritize what matters now, and choose technology that is right-sized but flexible enough to support future phases of growth.
How should I choose software without overbuying or picking the wrong system?
Start with your priorities, not the biggest feature list. Avoid an all-in-one system that claims to “do everything under the sun” and look for a “best of breed approach” with systems that can scale as you add channels or vendors. The practical advice is to stack rank what matters now, make sure the system can support future phases, and choose technology that fits your business rather than overwhelming it.
How to Scale Ecommerce Operations Beyond Spreadsheets
For many growing ecommerce businesses, Finale and Flxpoint work together as a practical answer to these challenges. Finale helps centralize and manage internal inventory, purchasing, warehouse operations, and stock visibility, while Flxpoint helps connect vendor inventory, automate supplier sync, and route orders across hybrid fulfillment networks. Together, they give businesses a best-of-breed way to improve inventory accuracy, reduce spreadsheet work, and scale fulfillment without forcing every process into a one-size-fits-all system.
Ecommerce Fulfillment Operations FAQ
What Is Ecommerce Fulfillment Operations?
Ecommerce fulfillment operations are the processes that move an online order from purchase to delivery. This includes managing inventory, syncing product availability across channels, routing orders to the right warehouse, 3PL, supplier, or vendor, and making sure the customer receives the right product on time. As discussed in the webinar, fulfillment is no longer limited to “what’s in my warehouse these days”; growing businesses may rely on internal warehouses, 3PLs, marketplace fulfillment services, and supplier inventory at the same time.
What Are Ecommerce Fulfillment Operation Examples?
Examples of ecommerce fulfillment operations include updating inventory across Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, and other sales channels; allocating inventory to specific marketplaces; sending orders to an internal warehouse, 3PL, or vendor; syncing supplier inventory through files, APIs, EDI, email, or FTP; replenishing warehouse stock based on sales velocity; and flagging exceptions such as high-value orders, compliance requirements, or restricted products. In the webinar, the speakers also discussed hybrid fulfillment examples where a business may fulfill some products from its own warehouse and use vendors as a fallback or extension of available inventory.
How Can I Track My Inventory at an Ecommerce Fulfillment Center?
The best way to track inventory at an ecommerce fulfillment center is to create a unified inventory view that shows what is available, where it is located, and how that inventory connects to each sales channel. That means tracking inventory across internal warehouses, fulfillment centers, 3PLs, marketplace fulfillment programs, and supplier locations instead of relying on disconnected spreadsheets. The webinar emphasized that businesses need to “accurately represent” what they have and know where it is located so they can get products to customers quickly.
How Can I Connect My Inventory to My Supplier?
You can connect supplier inventory through several methods, depending on what the supplier supports. The webinar discussed low-tech and advanced options, including automated Excel or CSV files, Google Sheets, email updates, FTP servers, APIs, EDI, and direct connections to ecommerce storefronts such as Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento. The key is to ask suppliers how they share inventory today, then use a system that can automate that data flow instead of manually copying supplier inventory into spreadsheets.
What Is Ecommerce Order Routing?
Ecommerce order routing is the process of deciding where an order is fulfilled from after a customer buys. In a simple operation, every order may go to one warehouse. In a more complex or hybrid fulfillment model, the best fulfillment source may depend on inventory availability, shipping speed, cost, margin, customer location, warehouse priority, vendor fallback rules, or whether the order should be split. The webinar described intelligent order routing as treating each order like its own use case, so businesses can automate the best fulfillment decision without manually reviewing every order.
