For lighting, furniture and home décor wholesale manufacturer Regina Andrew Design, having all of its inventory data on one system was important to the success of its business.
James Bonomo, the company’s COO, said new product introductions involved a lot of manual work. Another major issue was that its old system lacked the ability to show real-time inventory data.
“We had three systems – our ERP, an outside app for mobile, and our website basically for feeding the data,” Bonomo said.
The company began working with Oracle NetSuite in an effort to provide customers with a single view of inventory in real time. It chose a unified cloud platform combining ERP, ecommerce, inventory management, order management, CRM and WMS. The system allows the company to process orders faster, lower its operational costs and deliver an engaging online experience for B2B buyers.
Prior to working with Oracle NetSuite, one of the biggest challenges for Regina Andrew Design was managing online inventory of more than 1,000 SKUs that turn over 30 times a year.
The company is now working with a single source of inventory data to manage its inventory and increase warehouse efficiency. This has enabled it to streamline transactions with major retailers like Neiman Marcus and Lamps Plus.
“Having everything in one system gives us real-time availability for things like changing the data to add products or photography,” Bonomo said. The majority of its B2B business comes from designers and specialty stores.
“We currently have between 72% and 74% of our items in stock,” Bonomo said. “With the new website showing real-time availability as well as when an item is expected to be available, our customers are buying what is in stock and then returning to the website more often to purchase what they need.”
The new system integrates with FedEx and UPS to provide real-time shipping rates so customers can decide how they want their orders shipped. The previous system was limited to flat-rate percentages based on zones.
On Regina Andrew Design’s website customers can see their account pricing, get real-time current and future online inventory availability and place orders. Account management has also been streamlined. Customers can view account balances, apply credits and make payments to outstanding invoices.
Designers can now easily manage multiple projects and add items appropriate for each project. With the extensive product information and detailed images, designers can use the website as an online tear sheet and even disable pricing information when presenting to customers.
Bonomo said it’s important to build on efficiencies and get as much product data in front of the customer as possible.
Regina Andrew Design plans to add jewelry and fashion categories to its existing offerings in furniture and décor in its online inventory. It is also working on a project that will allow customers to view listings and quotes online.