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See it to solve it
15 January 2025
It was a great privilege to chat with Vente Unique’s Cyrille Mazal just after he crested the wave of his Peak in mid December. Read on to see how the furniture retailer he works for uses tech to fine tune operations.

VENTE-UNIQUE.COM is a leading online furniture retailer and it has recently taken steps, deploying Dexory robots, to enhance visibility in its warehouse operations.
This comes at a key time for the firm as it grows rapidly, for example, posting a 17.7% rise in gross merchandise volume for the first nine months of its most recent financial year. Operations clearly need to be keep up, and it’s not just the end customer who can be demanding.
Vente-unique supply chain & customer service director Cyrille Mazal, explains: “When working with marketplaces such as Amazon one of the most stringent KPIs we have to meet is availability of stock. If you have a serious discrepancy between stock levels and what you have been showing to Amazon and are unable to fulfil orders made, then you can be automatically removed as a supplier.
“Before we deployed Dexory robots we were at a good level in terms of stock accuracy, 99.6% accurate typically. With Dexory, we are looking to reduce this to almost zero.”
Through the integration of Dexory’s autonomous robots and DexoryView platform, Vente-unique.com gained new levels of visibility and precision of its warehouse operations.
The retailer had previously used a drone-based inventory solution, but opted to switch to Dexory.
Cyrille continues: “We have a big warehouse of 80,000 sq m and used a drone based solution for the last two years and they gave us the capacity to carry out stock takes on a quarterly cycle, but with Dexory we carry out two per week, sometimes more.
“A benefit of the very fast stock take is it allows you to identify issues that have happened recently, so we can react very quickly to correct, for example, errors made in putaway by our operators.”
Vente-unique operates from 5pm to 5am, through the night, to take advantage of lower traffic. It gives the furniture retailer the rest of the day to investigate issues.
“The stock takes operate autonomously, so we can focus on investigations. I prefer to do corrections manually, that way, we can either move the pallet to the correct position, or adjust it on the WMS.”
Vente-unique plans to open a new 62,000 sq m warehouse near Moulins which aims to double its capacity by 2026. The DC will not be automated, due to the bulky items stored by the firm.
Cyrille says: “We don’t see the return on investment for automation, so will be mainly traditional. However, we will probably use Dexory, once the warehouse is up and running.”
Dexory’s solution has increased visibility and reduced errors. An additional benefit is space density analysis and assessment.
“We’re looking at how dense our storage really is,” says Cyrille. “It’s not just about pallet space occupation, it’s also about how much of the air we have is occupied. Dexory will help us to investigate this.”
Handling bulky items comes with its own particular challenges.
“We have two man handling for picking some items, so it’s important your system drives the right items to the two man teams. You don’t want someone to get an order to pick a sofa when they are alone,” says Cyrille.
You also need to make sure to cut out double handling as much as possible.
“That’s why we pick, place labels and load to truck. We try to have a cycle of four hours, and make sure the truck guys really understand how to maximise the cubic space of the trailer. We like to have everything ready one hour before the truck’s departure,” explains Cyrille.
“It’s important to not leave the goods standing too long, to avoid damage. Then, its about getting straight to the customer, if possible. We really try to avoid going through hubs.”
So, how did peak go for the eComm retailer?
“All shipped ten days after Black Friday. In the furniture business, we are shipping based on customer appointments. It has gone well.”
With Dexory’s robots capturing data of the entire site and feeding it to the DexoryView platform, Vente-unique.com now has real-time information about inventory levels, storage locations and item movements across its warehouse. This will help the company to gather information without disruptions to its daily operations and optimise the flow of goods across its warehouse.
Cyrille concludes: “The technology allows us to ensure real-time inventory tracking, providing better service to our customers and reinforcing our commitment to reliability and performance.”
For more information, visit www.dexory.com
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