Case Study: ForbiddenPlanet.Com achieves real-time inventory visibility and faster order fulfillment with Claris (FileMaker) custom apps

ForbiddenPlanet.Com blasts its business into hyperdrive with custom apps on FileMaker Platform

ForbiddenPlanet.Com, Europe’s largest sci‑fi entertainment retailer with nine UK stores and over 230 staff, struggled as rapid growth made it hard to track stock, manage some 50 million product records and coordinate online orders, couriers and postage across disparate systems. These challenges created time‑consuming administrative tasks for picking and warehouse teams and increased reliance on fast IT support to maintain customer service levels.

ForbiddenPlanet’s in‑house IT team built more than 50 custom FileMaker apps (running on five servers), anchored by a central EposDB with 50M product records, plus a FileMaker Go iPad picking app developed in six weeks and a Mail Order app that integrates couriers and postage. The result is real‑time stock updates for warehouse staff, major time savings on manual cataloguing and shipping tasks, company‑wide visibility for better strategic decisions, and plans to expand mobile apps for greater flexibility.

ForbiddenPlanet.Com

Gary Palmer

IT Director