Happytoes Steps Forward with AccuPOS EPoS Solution
Introduction
With over twenty-five years experience in the children’s shoe industry, there is very little about children’s feet and footwear that Maria Sunich does not know. It therefore comes as no surprise that she decided to open the doors to Happytoes with her husband Paul in March 2007, a specialist children’s shoe shop in Balham, London.
Growing Pains
Offering a unique mixture of a personalised fitting service with an exclusive range of footwear, Happytoes were quickly selling over 100 pairs of shoes a week, ranging from first-walking shoes to Wellington boots. Originally using MS Excel to record transactions and perform book-keeping functions, Happytoes quickly found the need for a more accurate and easy-to-use system that would take away the headaches of day-to-day admin tasks.
One such example was stock control, as like for many new businesses each sale was important. It was therefore imperative that top selling lines and out-of-stock items were easily identified and reordered. Aware that as the business continued to grow so would the need for more accurate and in-depth reports, Paul and Maria made the decision to invest in an EPoS solution.
The Right Fit
Based on her experience in the retail industry, Maria suggested that AccuPOS Retail software might be the answer.
“Having used AccuPOS in a previous role I was familiar with the product and knew it was easy to use and had a lot of the functions I would be looking for. Upon speaking to the sales team I also found that we could purchase everything we needed, including the accounting software and touch-screen till, from a single supplier and therefore solve a lot of the headaches that come from dealing with lots of suppliers.”
Having no previous experience of setting up an EPoS system, Happytoes took full advantage of the AccuPOS support team. “We originally experienced a couple of teething problems, however the support team were fantastic and were able to walk us through how to solve the problem. They even rang us on a number of occasions to see how we were getting on.”
Paul, who looks after the company accounts in addition to his full-time job, quickly found he was able to perform a variety of tasks, including the creation of POS receipts, detailed sales records, stock values and best selling brands and sizes at the touch of a button.
Before long the AccuPOS solution was increasing productivity by providing a direct link with an easy-to-use accounting programme, Quickbooks, and letting Paul and Maria enjoy their evenings together and not working.
Next Step Forward
AccuPOS will continue to serve Happytoes throughout the company’s growth: once the business grows and additional staffs are hired, the payroll feature will provide the easy handling of salaries, calculating hours worked and potentially sales bonuses.
Paul says he would definitely recommend using AccuPOS Retail to anyone looking for an EPoS system.
“Combined with Quickbooks, AccuPOS Retail provides us with the ability to perform every day tasks easily and without any headaches. By providing the reports that we need, such as stock levels, we are able to concentrate on the most important element of our business – delivering great products and service to our growing customer base.”
Glow Lounge starts the day with AccuPOS
The first round
Clapham’s Glow Lounge started up five years ago with the aim of bringing Australian bar culture to the UK. The café bar’s founders, Bart Thomas and Kerri Clay, were keen to run an establishment far removed from the traditional ‘greasy spoon cafe’, instead focusing on tasty breakfasts, quality coffee, and real fruit smoothies.
This philosophy also carried over to the Lounge’s evening offerings, where Australian lagers sit alongside Guinness and draught beers. Popular weeknight promotions also have an authentic Australian influence, for example ‘Toss the Boss’ – having ordered their drinks, the bar staff flip a coin and if called correctly the round is free.
Having quickly established a loyal following, with all day breakfasts and a forecourt overlooking Clapham Common, the Glow Lounge was soon buzzing every day of the week.
Happy Hour
Originally using a traditional till to manage transactions, Bart and Kerri soon found that to continue growing, a streamlining of transactions was essential.
Bart Thomas, Co-Founder of Glow Lounge said: “A big part of the Glow Lounge philosophy is to continually react to the wants and needs of our customer base. We realised that to continue innovating, and ensure the best possible customer experience, we would have to invest in an EPoS solution.”
In 2005, the Glow Lounge installed AccuPOS, an award winning EPoS solution for small-to-medium sized retailers, on multiple service tills. AccuPOS automatically saves sales and customer information collected at the point of sale into the bar’s accounting software, QuickBooks, and eliminates data entry errors or the need to re-enter data.
A remote kitchen printer allows bar staff to quickly communicate orders to the kitchen direct from the till. This ensures that orders can be quickly completed and served to the customer, as well as minimising the likeliness of orders being incorrectly passed on.
Front of house has reaped the benefits, as they no longer need to memorise the prices of different drinks and meals, increasing the speed at which orders can be entered.
AccuPOS has supported Bart and Kerri in ensuring the Glow Lounge continues to offer their customers exactly what they want.
“The stock-tracking function is extremely helpful, not just in terms of knowing what we need to order from our suppliers, but also allowing us to understand what sells and what doesn’t. Other reports have allowed us to adjust our openings to maximise our revenue and not be open during quiet times,” says Bart.
Closing Time
AccuPOS will continue to serve the Glow Lounge as it continues to provide its patrons with a chilled alternative to the hectic Clapham scene, and giving Antipodean patrons a taste of home.
Bart says he would definitely recommend using AccuPOS to anyone looking for an easy to use EPoS solution, most notably due to the service that comes with the software. “The AccuPOS staff are always helpful and responsive. The solution has allowed us to concentrate on making the Glow Lounge the venue it is today without the usual headaches that come with running your own business.”
Hard work pays off for Mumfords
An Established History
G.B. Chadd (Holdings), a family run department store business, has owned a variety of retail outlets for the last 100 years. In 2004 the company underwent a period of diversification and the vast majority of their retail business was sold. During this period, Mumfords, a general store in the seaside town of Southwold was retained.
Mumfords sell a wide variety of goods and services, ranging from garden supplies, kitchen and cookware products, hardware and paint supplies, to camping and DIY equipment, together with outdoor clothing, key cutting and a dry cleaning service.
Diversification
The customer base and product range continued to grow from strength to strength, however in 2005 administration problems began to arise.
Amelia Chadd, Manager of Mumfords, recalls, “We were offering approximately 10,000 different stock items from a range of suppliers and we found we were lacking a concrete record of what was in stock at any one time. This proved a particular headache when we were preparing orders for our suppliers as our buyers were simply walking around the shop and estimating what we needed.”
Another headache faced by Mumfords was that sales were not itemised and were only classified by department, leaving Mumfords only able to estimate what product ranges were selling well and what was not.
Meeting Customer and Business Needs
Recognising the business needed to run more efficiently to better serve both their own and customer needs, in 2005 Mumford’s decided to contact AccuPOS to introduce an EPoS (Electronic Point of Sale) solution in the store. After careful consideration of the problems faced by the retailer due to their extensive product range and multiple departments, AccuPOS installed APX Complete till systems, each equipped with a Metrologic 9540 barcode reader & AccuCount for stock taking.
Mumfords also worked with their suppliers to ensure they could maximise the benefits of the new system, requesting all products including barcodes and deliveries were accompanied by Excel documents which simplified entry onto the system.
Reaping the Rewards
Today each sold item is automatically deducted from the inventory held on the system allowing Mumford’s to accurately reorder items at a glance. Amelia is also able to access a detailed list of all the items sold throughout the day, allowing for much more informed decisions regarding what product ranges should be developed in-store moving forward.
“Entering the stock on to the system was a long and laborious process but once that was achieved we had a system that has allowed our business to operate much more efficiently. An unexpected advantage has also been the touch-screen interface, which during our busy summer periods means we can serve our customers much faster.”
