The Problem

As Fujian Footwear expanded their channels across wholesale, in-store, online and digital marketplaces, their need for a POS system and eCommerce platform that could manage their increasing complexities became more and more of a necessity.

General Manager, Don Murphy, explained that while they had moved their business into an omnichannel model, their original systems — SoleMate and Magento — were limiting their expansion and making managing inventory across so many channels difficult.

The decision was made to look for a POS system that could integrate seamlessly with their growing online businesses, offer more inventory visibility and control and set their business up for agile growth.

The Results

Equipped with Retail Express as their agile software solution, Fujian Footwear transformed their business direction into a nimble omnichannel experience that has launched 3 digital brands, expanded into online marketplaces and doubled their business in the last 12 months.

During the first year of COVID, Fujian Footwear relied on Retail Express’ powerful inventory management features, eCommerce integration with Shopify and centralised reporting to steer their operations where the market needed them to be.  

Agile inventory management and fulfilment allocation

With so many styles, sizes and colours in a footwear retailers product portfolio – overstocks in certain SKUs are inevitable.

But with Retail Express’ inventory management and fulfilment capabilities, Fujian Footwear have the tools to identify slow-moving inventory in one brand or channel and sell it in another. They are also able to fulfil their online orders from any of store locations increasing speed of home delivery and reducing costs.

General manager, Don Murphy, spoke of the tangible difference automated inventory management has made to Fujian Footwear’s productivity and turnover.

“There’s always fragmentation in footwear and we’re running a lot of stock to different locations and need continuity to our marketplaces. With Retail Express, we can quickly locate and clear out stock across all of our locations and work our marketplaces, so we no longer need to run around and spend time manually managing our stock. The difference has been massive.”

Pivoting during lockdown with a powerful Shopify eCommerce integration

Lockdown sent many retailers spiraling to build an online store that could deliver an exceptional experience to customers, but Fujian Footwear was already equipped with a cloud-based system in Retail Express, and an integrated eCommerce platform in Shopify.  

Retail Express and Shopify’s flexibility, ease of use and integrations meant Fujian Footwear could connect their online store, physical locations, stockists and warehouses to easily shift their business online and grow their store. General Manager, Don Murphy, attributes their Retail Express and Shopify integration as “transforming their business” and leading to the footwear retailer launching smart marketing campaigns based on real-time sales data to put their brands on the map.  

“Shopify and Retail Express ecosystem has definitely helped with our sales and turnover, but also has helped keep our inventory as agile as it can be across multiple channels, allowing us to keep expanding the business while reducing our turnover and leftover stock.”

Utilising reporting & data visibility to combat staff shortages & prepare for future growth

The pandemic not only shifted the customer landscape for retailers, but it also shifted the workforce landscape too. Fujian Footwear combated this shift by equipping themselves with Retail Express’ centralised, easy to understand reporting capabilities.  

Fujian Footwear can instantly access the right data in one view, without having to manually create reports. This allowed a lean team of staff to quickly hone in on actionable information and set up automated tasks easily without being single point sensitive on a team of technical IT experts.  

The Fujian Footwear team used this centralised reporting to focus their team on high-value activities and reduce manual task hours.

“As a small business, using Retail Express to gain key information and datasets quickly and automate tasks really helps stop people from being bogged down in admin work and be more focused on analytical data and making better decisions for the business.”

Staff and senior management are now not only able to efficiently set up tasks, but can easily glean accurate, real-time data from any device or location to navigate the business into another profitable year and maximise their share of the economic growth in the retail industry.