The Challenge

Unipart’s agility and flexibility unlock opportunities for the nation’s favourite bookseller, with online orders increasing by over 1300%.

Waterstones is Britain’s only national bookshop chain, with over 280 bookshops across the UK.

When COVID-19 caused locked down of Britain’s High Streets, like other retailers, Waterstones’ bookstores were affected. Customers wanting books to help them through lockdown turned to the internet to find them.

The scale of the demand required a rapid response, with online orders increasing by over 1300%, from 2000 to over 28,000 units per day.

This surge in activity needed a flexible and agile supply chain solution to quickly implement some operational changes.