Furniture | Multi-store | 15 Stores | AU
How AU multi-store brand Johnny’s Furniture slashed 100's of manual labour hours & gained full inventory visibility with Retail Express POS software.
Return on Investment Summary
National Australian retailer Johnny’s Furniture implemented Retail Express to support store expansion and growth that:
Saved 450 labour hours per week
Expedited Layby sales to optimise cash flow
Improved margins dramatically through real-time COGS data
Automated their fulfilment processes
Achieved their best sales month on record
The Company
After more than 10 years in operation furniture retailer, Johnny’s Furniture had grown from supplying furniture for 5‐star hotels in Melbourne to expanding and operating over 15 high-quality stores across Australia — in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria..
Despite rapid expansion, their business goals remained the same — to source the best-quality products, think outside the box, and offer incredible furniture deals to customers.
The Problem
Growing from a small retailer to a multi-store retail business, Johnny’s Furniture soon realised that they needed more advanced software systems. Reliable omnichannel POS software that could cope with the complexities of running a multi-store furniture retail operation was a must-have.
Johnny’s Furniture was constantly running into problems with its POS (point of sale) software, Vend. Manual processes were increasing — and they regularly ran into limitations.
They were held back — rather than being supported by their software, paying a punitive price for their success.
70% of Johnny’s Furnitures’ sales were pre-orders from in-transit stock. This made managing their estimated times of arrival (ETA) for customers crucial. But with the limitations of Vend, warehouse and in-store staff were spending excessive time on this process.
With productivity across every business function and customer experience hurting, Johnny’s Furniture knew they had to look for an alternative retail software solution to support their growth.
“We just reached a point where our previous system – Vend – was limiting our growth, customer experience and efficiency. As we expanded there was a need for a system that could handle the complexity of multiple store furniture retail operations.”
– Corey Davison, National Operations Manager
The Results
The Johnny’s Furniture retail case study proves that it’s possible to slash manual admin work — and staff stress levels with the right software system. Today, their staff have more confidence, time and ability to focus on delivering a world-class customer experience — instead of spending their days troubleshooting.
Automated & real-time stock fulfilment processes
Since switching to Retail Express point-of-sale software, the team at Johnny’s Furniture have saved 450 labour hours per week through automated, optimised fulfilment processes. They now have complete visibility over the supply chain status of items. And, they can give customers accurate availability and ETA information without having to call the warehouse.
Instead, staff can confidently access real-time data directly from Retail Express. Now, the warehouse team has daily delivery and pickup reports — so they can receive and pick stock in record time.
“This is a dream for both the salesperson and our business overall. Store salespeople can generate revenue just by looking at laybys that can now be fulfilled today. It means we are optimising our cash flow,” said National Operations Manager, Cory Davidson.
Inventory management for Laybys & incoming stock
Before implementing Retail Express, a lack of inventory visibility became a significant problem. A lack of visibility over incoming inventory meant staff weren’t aware of stock becoming available for Layby customers. Consequently, they were battling with stock held in stores awaiting deliveries. Now, their Layby and stock issues have been slashed with real-time inventory allocation and management capabilities.
Staff can see incoming stock in real-time and assign inventory to customers based on their Layby order. This feature lets customers collect and pay for their items sooner. Incoming stock management also allowed staff to assign orders for home delivery or warehouse pickup before they arrived. Stock could be diverted away from stores, freeing up space to display more products and generate more sales.
This shift to Retail Express resulted in Johnny’s Furniture recording their best sales month in the company’s history.
Real-time reporting for accurate COGS & margin maintenance
With Retail Express, Johnny’s Furniture has access to real-time reporting. This reporting gives them reliable COGS data and the agility to adjust prices to balance and maintain margins as soon as changes occur in their supply chain.
Staff can now easily update costs to reflect each store’s cost of goods. They can also make informed decisions on prices and promotional offers — giving them one accurate source of truth rather than guessing.
Johnny’s Furniture is a digital transformation retail case study that we hope will help many Aussie furniture store owners struggling with outdated systems. Another omnichannel success story, it clearly illustrates how choosing the right software with the power to grow with your business can make all the difference.
““The advanced features of Retail Express slash the unnecessary admin hours our store and warehouse teams were wasting on phone calls, while allowing our customers to get an accurate, (and usually faster) ETA. This is going to be central to our competitiveness – especially as we expand stores.”