Waterstones hit by stock shortages after warehouse tech problems

The national bookshop chain upgraded to software from Blue Yonder in July but has been beset with issues, which were first reported by The Guardian.   

Waterstones apologised for “the unusual slowness” in fulfilling online orders and said it expects to clear the backlog by next month.

A spokesperson for the retailer said: “Waterstones last month upgraded the system that manages stock distribution from our warehouse to Blue Yonder technology. This is now operational, with stock flowing to our bookshops and customers. 

“Over the implementation period, however, a backlog of orders was created which we are now processing as quickly as we can.

“By September we anticipate beginning to benefit from the much more sophisticated platform now at our disposal.”

However, Waterstones admitted that not all of its stock issues were sparked by the switch to Blue Yonder’s system. The retailer said that it had “under-bought” some books – perhaps suggesting a more cautious approach to stock control in the current economic climate. 

The spokesperson added: “We note some of the public commentary, much of which complains that we have under-bought some titles. 

“Unfortunately, no amount of sophisticated new warehouse systems changes the fact that as booksellers we choose what to buy, sometimes being a little too reticent, sometimes too enthusiastic. We can’t blame Blue Yonder for this.”

The issues were first raised on Twitter by Sam Missingham, publishing commentator and founder of The Empowered Author book marketing service, prompting a string of replies from authors, staff and customers.  

One employee tweeted that Glasgow “ran out of books” completely as a result of the problems, while another said: “Our systems for deliveries and order processing were super-outdated. They were upgrading them and something has gone wrong, so orders are not matching up properly on the system and as a result, we haven’t been able to get any books whether they’re stock or for customers. Nightmare.” 

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