Austin, Aug. 1, 2022 – Furniture retailer Upstairs Downstairs is undergoing a new kind of makeover as the latest merchant to transform its multichannel processes with Brightpearl.
The popular home and furniture brand will benefit from Brightpearl’s industry-leading, retail-focused features, including a powerful Automation Engine, cutting-edge Demand Planner and advanced reporting functionality. The team at Upstairs Downstairs will also save countless hours with Brightpearl in place to automate and streamline time-intensive manual processes, which often introduce complexity while hindering growth.
Ireland-born Upstairs Downstairs is a family-run business going back to 1983, and in the almost 40 years since launch has become one of Ireland’s leading furniture stores. The company operates via three bricks-and-mortar outlets based in Monaghan, Enniskillen and Lisburn. It also runs a popular website powered by Shopify Plus, selling high-quality furniture, flooring, bedding and home accessories direct-to-consumer from over 150 suppliers.
Expansion is imminent for Upstairs Downstairs, but with so many moving parts to the business the merchant lacked visibility between its online operations, warehouses and three physical stores. The team also found it hard to maintain accuracy in its manual reporting, and was straining its resources on manual stock management and time-consuming inventory analysis.
After briefly considering a single solution provider but finding it “too lightweight” for its multichannel complexities, Upstairs Downstairs chose Brightpearl. The agile, made-for-retail operating system is the first choice for many high growth Shopify Plus merchants looking to flexibly grow their businesses — and it was implemented for Upstairs Downstairs in a lightning fast 150 days.
Brightpearl’s range of plug-and-play integrations meant it seamlessly synced with the furniture retailer’s existing Shopify Plus setup as well as its current accounting software, Xero, and its deep API access means it can easily link to any apps or sales channels the merchant chooses to scale with in future.
Brightpearl’s powerful Automation Engine, which streamlines and automates operations such as ordering, inventory, warehouse, shipping and fulfilment, means that key team members can refocus their time towards Growing Fearlessly, saving crucial hours through the elimination of clunky manual processes.
The merchant’s slow stock management issues are solved with Brightpearl’s best-in-class Inventory Planner Premium, which offers data-led inventory insights across multiple locations and meaningful demand forecasting. This means Upstairs Downstairs can easily move stock between its three physical stores and make more informed replenishment decisions to boost profits.
Tricky manual reporting is also a thing of the past for the homeware brand, as Brightpearl’s dedicated retail accounting function gives Upstairs Downstairs the enhanced financial accuracy and in-depth reports it’s been seeking.
Potentially the biggest game-changer for Upstairs Downstairs: with Brightpearl in place as its central source of truth the brand will gain 360-degree visibility into its online and offline business performance, receiving real-time insights that cover POS, inventory, warehouse and more.
“With Brightpearl in place our systems are much more streamlined, and paperwork is a thing of the past,” said David McQuaid, a spokesperson for Upstairs Downstairs. “Brightpearl integrates brilliantly with our sales channels, and acts as a single source of truth so we can see everything in one place. The upside of that is a multichannel operation that is more manageable, efficient, productive and scalable.”
“Upstairs Downstairs is a successful retailer in Ireland, but as we see time and again with fast-growing enterprises, its disjointed manual systems were at breaking point and hindering growth,” said Justin Press, SVP of Customer Success at Brightpearl. “The brand’s smart decision to combine Brightpearl and Shopify Plus has created a powerful, scalable architecture that brings all the retailer’s online and offline operations together into one real-time, central source of truth. Now there’s nothing stopping Upstairs Downstairs from Growing Fearlessly — and we know that with Brightpearl, they’ll feel right at home.”