American Eagle’s logistics arm adds Saks Off Fifth, Fanatics as customers

Dive Brief:

American Eagle added Saks Off Fifth and Fanatics as logistics customers for its Quiet Platforms, Jay Schottenstein, executive chairman and CEO, said in the company's Q1 earnings call. The platform includes the retailer's Quiet Logistics and Air Terra acquisitions from last year.
American Eagle leveraged the logistics platform to drive down the number of shipments per order during the quarter and "shipped our digital orders faster with a 13% reduction in delivery times," said COO Michael Rempell.
The retailer is offering its fulfillment services to customers through a "shared supply chain services network," and "we’re looking forward to adding more in the coming months," said Rempell.

Dive Insight:

It's been about six months since American Eagle announced the Quiet Logistics acquisition, and the retailer is now actively signing up new customers to for fulfillment, shared distribution and logistics through Quiet Platforms. This also comes after the company said during its Q4 earnings call it was looking to offer its supply chain capabilities to other companies.

"We are clearly in a very disruptive supply chain environment. And to me, that only makes the impetus for people needing this kind of service greater," Rempell said. The company has been encouraged by the level of engagement from other brands and retailers "who share our vision for the future of the supply chain," he said.

More customers will be added in the coming months Rempell said during the call, but did not specify which companies would be added or when.

American Eagle has been on a journey to enable fast fulfillment and delivery for its customers. In Q1, it reported further reductions in the number of shipments per order.

The retailer has also made it clear it has high expectations for Quiet Platforms. During the Q4 earnings call last year, Schottenstein touted the Quiet Logistics acquisition to be the "anti-Amazon," and in Q1 Rempell said, "they [customers] see this [Quiet Platforms] as the way in the future."

"It is the way that retailers are going to want to operate," Rempell said, noting that positioning inventory closer to customers and utilizing shared capacity will be as "transformative to the retail landscape as omnichannel changes were years ago."