A remote admin and operations team. Built in Sri Lanka. Delivering for Canada.
Formix
Experience
Case Studies Based on Practical Experience
How Formix Delivered 80% Cost Savings for a Canadian Retail Chain Through Offshore Staffing
Client
A well-established Canadian retail chain operating across multiple store locations selling consumer products through both physical retail outlets and a growing e-commerce channel. The organisation employs a team of retail and operations professionals across store management, inventory control, customer service, purchasing, and administrative support. Like many mid-size retail chains in Canada, the business was navigating the dual challenge of rising operational costs and increasing pressure to invest in digital retail capability without a proportional increase in revenue to fund both simultaneously.
The client’s name is not disclosed. The industry, the offshore staffing model, and the results are shared here because they reflect a pattern that is becoming increasingly common among Canadian retail businesses and a model that Formix is uniquely positioned to deliver.
Challenge
The organisation’s leadership team had identified that a significant portion of their administrative and back-office workload purchasing coordination, inventory data management, supplier communication, e-commerce product listing maintenance, customer enquiry management, and general administrative support did not require physical presence in Canada. These tasks were being performed by Canadian-based staff at Canadian employment costs salary, CPP contributions, EI premiums, benefits, and office overhead for work that could be delivered equally effectively by skilled remote professionals working from offshore.
The CFO had run a cost analysis showing that replacing five Canadian administrative positions with offshore equivalents would reduce the organisation’s administrative employment cost by approximately 80% saving a significant sum annually that could be redirected toward their e-commerce development and store expansion priorities.
The challenge was finding an offshore staffing partner who could deliver the right professionals people with strong English communication, genuine administrative capability, and the professional discipline to manage their own workflows in a remote environment quickly, compliantly, and at the standard the organisation’s operations demanded.
THE APPROACH — RECRUITMENT
Formix began with a two-hour operational briefing mapping the specific tasks, tools, workflows, and communication requirements of each of the five roles the client wanted to offshore. The roles identified were a Purchasing Coordinator, an Inventory Data Administrator, a Supplier Communications Executive, an E-Commerce Product Listing Specialist, and a General Administrative Assistant.
Each role had a distinct operational profile. The Purchasing Coordinator needed experience with procurement processes and supplier relationship management. The Inventory Data Administrator required strong Excel and data management capability combined with high attention to detail. The Supplier Communications Executive needed professional written English and the ability to manage multiple supplier relationships simultaneously. The E-Commerce Product Listing Specialist required familiarity with e-commerce platforms and product content management. The General Administrative Assistant needed broad administrative capability and the flexibility to support multiple team members across different functions.
Formix sourced candidates for all five roles from our Sri Lanka talent pool screening specifically for professionals with the relevant functional experience, strong written and verbal English communication, and demonstrated experience in remote working environments. Canadian Eastern Standard Time alignment was built into the brief candidates were assessed for their ability and willingness to work schedules aligned to Canadian business hours.
Shortlists of three candidates per role were delivered within six business days. Every candidate had been assessed by a senior Formix consultant not just screened against keywords with specific attention to communication capability and remote work readiness.
THE OUTCOME
The client’s operations manager and HR coordinator conducted video interviews over a five-day period. All five offers were made within sixteen days of the initial briefing. Four candidates accepted immediately. One candidate the E-Commerce Product Listing Specialist declined after reconsidering the time zone requirements. Formix identified and presented a replacement candidate within two business days. That candidate was offered and accepted the role, bringing the full offshore team to five professionals within twenty-two days of the initial briefing.
The client calculated their first-year employment cost saving across the five offshore roles at 81% compared to the Canadian-based equivalent positions factoring in salary, statutory contributions, and the office overhead they avoided by not maintaining five additional physical desks in their Canadian head office.
The Purchasing Coordinator reduced the organisation’s average supplier response time by reorganising their purchase order communication workflow in the first month. The E-Commerce Product Listing Specialist cleared a backlog of over three hundred unlisted products within the first six weeks generating immediate additional online revenue.
All five offshore professionals remained in their roles beyond the twelve-month mark. The organisation subsequently engaged Formix to build a second offshore team adding three additional roles across customer enquiry management and social media administration bringing their total Sri Lanka-based remote workforce to eight professionals within eighteen months of the initial engagement.
WHAT THIS CASE STUDY DEMONSTRATES
Offshore staffing from Sri Lanka delivers measurable, significant cost savings for Canadian retail businesses without sacrificing the quality, professionalism, or operational reliability that retail operations require from their administrative and back-office teams.
The key is a staffing partner who maps the operational requirements properly, screens for genuine capability rather than just availability, and manages the entire process from sourcing through onboarding with the rigour that ensures your offshore team delivers from day one.
For Canadian retail businesses and organisations across every sector, Formix delivers offshore staffing solutions that reduce cost substantially while building remote teams that perform consistently and scale with the business.
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