Spanish street
wear retailer, 13 Buho St, which currently has 29
stores mainly in the UK, Spain, France and Russia,
says it plans to open around 30 more stores in the
next two years, including an additional 10 franchise
outlets in the UK. To support such a rapid international
expansion, new retail software has been rolled out
through VCSTIMELESS.
"When we became more international, with
new stores opening abroad and the production
of our clothing all coming from Bangladesh, we needed
technology more compatible with our global infrastructure,
without forcing any big drastic changes,” said
Samantha Herelle, franchise manager at 13
Buho St.
Communication Challenges
“The biggest problem was communication
between our stores and knowing at any time how
much each
was selling,” she added. “There was
no reporting and very little planning done before.”
The
previous technology was unable to cope with multiple
brands and the wide range of activities
in different countries. There were also a lot of
problems with the reliability of transferring data.
Sales were not updated regularly enough, so replenishment
was based on inaccurate stock and sales data.
"
We needed one central solution for every
country, and every store,” said Herelle. “We
wanted a system able to help with pricing, promotions
and customer service in various different languages.”
The
company chose the integrated retail head-office
solution, Colombus
Enterprise Suite, from European
software vendor VCSTIMELESS.
Implementation began
during the summer of 2005 and was completed in
one phase by September, after
rolling-out new point-of-sale solutions to all
29 stores during July and August. Training of 40
users at head office and for all 29 stores took
place at the same time. The production centre in
Bangladesh was also connected directly to the system
in order to manage deliveries, labelling and invoicing.
The
main challenge was the transfer of large amounts
of historical sales data from the old system to
the new one (SQL Server to Progress), as well as
the importance of a seamless and rapid changeover,
with minimal ‘down-time’.
Buho Benefits
Owner and Director of 13 Buho St,
Dositeo Cela, said that the integration of the
retailer’s
entire infrastructure into the same retail
system has had a very positive impact on communication,
and, as a direct result, a knock-on effect for
the retail business.
"Good up-to-the-minute
information on sales and regular updates has meant
that store replenishment is now much quicker, and more accurate.”
From the head office, the €12 million company
now has visibility of the entire network and so
has greater control over making sure that the right
clothes are destined for the right store. This
reduces the amount of surplus stock left at the
end of the season, not to mention the quantity
of returns from its company-owned stores back to
head office – which leads to markdowns and
the erosion of profit margins.
"We work very closely with both our franchise
and corporate stores to actively anticipate and
adapt to customers’ wishes, and they send
us detailed reports of what they believe is best
suited to their stores and, most importantly, they
tell us what the customer wants,” said Cela.
The
Price is Right
"Pricing is always a challenge; prices just
keep falling and we are forced to ask ourselves ‘where
do we put our prices?’ We can’t make
them too high, we can’t make them too low,
so where do we place our price points in relation
to the competition? It’s a tough call.”
But with the new technology, there’s now
less deliberation. According to Carmen Martinez,
project manager at VCSTIMELESS, improved information
sharing and effectively ‘everyone working
from the same hymn sheet’ leaves less room
for human error.
"The staff at 13 Buho St have welcomed a
retail solution that allows them to get on with
the business of serving customers, and not having
to worry so much about whether the right amount
of stock has been ordered,” said Martinez.
Analysis
of sales data and using the VCSTIMELESS Optimum
business intelligence reporting module has allowed 13
Buho St to improve the product assortments
destined for different stores in different countries,
as well as plan ahead more effectively for seasonal
fluctuations and making sure that there’s
fewer stock-outs.
Other benefits include:
- labelling can now
be done by producers in Bangladesh (so considerable
time
savings)
- 25% reduction in reserve stock
- 15% increase
in turnover
- in-store staff productivity up
by 50%
- 30% increase in supply chain productivity
- reduced
out of stocks
- 25% reduction in stocks
- 12% increase in service
levels (deliveries to store, customer orders)
- greater visibility
- faster inventories
- franchises can do own
invoicing
- technology adapted to future
growth strategies
- Internationalisation: multi-lingual, multi-currency
etc.
- compatible
with accounting system
(Sage)
- developed
for concessions,
franchises
etc.
- improved
CRM strategy:
by
tracking
clients, recording purchases,
offering
specialised promotions,
targeted
direct marketing
campaigns.
- compatibility with other
stock control
systems,
allowing
13
Buho St to
work with
a
wider range
of retail investors
13
Buho St’s sister company, Enigma Trading,
produces a lot of merchandise for Mango, as well
as supplying numerous multiple retailers, including
Eroski. The wholesale business is considering linking
to the VCSTIMELESS system in future.
For more information, visit: www.13buhost.com
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