By Jon Roberts, Sales Director at OrderWise: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers have faced numerous challenges. Temporary store closures, import and export delays and rising prices have all played their part, with the majority of retailers seeking ways to drive efficiency and cut costs. If they hadn’t before, many are realising just how important a reliable enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management solution (WMS) are in managing their operation.
Sam Turner and Sons is a large multi-channel retailer specialising in farm and country equipment. Stocking a wide range of products, the business sought to streamline a number of processes to increase productivity, realising that their legacy systems were no longer sufficient.
Updating legacy systems
Issues such as rising inflation, delays within the supply chain, wage inflation and more have created a period of uncertainty for retailers – making the need for efficiency even greater.
At the same time, customer demand is increasing with services such as next-day delivery no longer a ‘nice to have’, but an expectation. Meeting these expectations while managing rising costs can be tricky, especially for those reliant on outdated or inefficient processes.
This was one of the main factors driving Sam Turner’s decision to deploy new technology. While they had been successful at attracting new customers in different marketplaces, such as on its own website, Amazon and eBay, the main challenge was then to manage customer expectation to secure repeat business. As online orders started to reach between 70 and 80 a day, legacy processes were no longer sufficient. In the past, account details were handwritten and then entered manually into the database – a process that was susceptible to human error. Similarly, this hindered Sam Turner’s ability to undertake accurate reporting, making any financial losses almost untraceable.
Via the fully integrated software, teams can now access live data on profits and purchases, identify areas to generate revenue, lower overall operating costs and protect stock – safe in the knowledge that the data they are working from is up-to-date.
Transforming processes to drive efficiencies
Implementing OrderWise Ecommerce enabled the business to automate core processes and integrate the data across the department. Before, multiple tools and platforms were used to manage the different marketplaces – now everything is under one system and the active customer base has increased by 100,000.
In addition to their website, the software integrates with Sam Turner’s third-party sales platforms, Amazon and eBay which has seen a huge boost in online orders peaking at 15,000 a month – a 700 per cent increase on previous years.
Improving customer service
After using a 20 year old DOS based system the investment into an EPOS touch screen interface system was revolutionary. Till operators now have access to data on customer information, stock levels and sales transactions. From this, in-store orders have reached up to 50,000 monthly through EPOS and no extra cost has been spent on labour.
Previously enquiries used to drain time, due to the business relying on multiple, disintegrated platforms to manage their communication. Now, via the CRM system, it’s far easier to access an in-depth profile as well as previous purchases, delivery details and invoices.
Since adopting new technologies, Sam Turner has boosted its profits, grown its loyal customer base and now continues to bring in new opportunities.
For more information on OrderWise and its WMS and ERP software, visit www.orderwise.co.uk.
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