“The Eurostop team are extremely knowledgeable and professional but more importantly very approachable. The team ensured the migration to our new solution was as pain-free as possible. Each time we speak with them it validates our decision to have invested in a Eurostop solution,” Steve Shephard, Operations Manager, Robert Goddard

• The company has improved rate of sales, profit margins and turnover of stock.
• Optimisation of warehouse processes has improved efficiency, enabling the business to expand capacity without increasing headcount costs and as a result expect to see a Return on Investment within six months
• Eurostop solution connects offline and online channels for streamlined customer experience and online growth.

The Challenge – Fast Fashion

“We wanted a provider that had proven experience in the retail space and understood the importance of effective stock management across all retail outlets, both physical and virtual,” said Steve.

Robert Goddard retail stores stock some of the most sought after casual fashion brands including Hugo Boss, Armani, Ted Baker and Ralph Lauren. Their entire product range often changes according to seasons and effective stock management is essential to avoid having to discount excess stock at end of season sales.

Furthermore, new season product ranges from leading brands are in high demand and often stock is sent part shipped to retailers, with the remainder of the order despatched a few weeks later. Previously, stock would remain in the Robert Goddard warehouse until the complete shipment had been goods receipted and only then would stock be allocated to retail stores. The company wanted to speed up the process of despatching in-demand stock to stores whilst maintaining an accurate record of live stock allocation across all sites including the warehouse.

The Solution – A Perfect Fit

The Operations team led by manager Steve Shephard conducted an extensive 9-month review of ten different Stock Management and EPOS solutions. Eurostop was selected for its in-depth knowledge of the retail sector and insight into the impact of seasonality and stock management on sales margins.

Eurostop’s connected systems, encompassing e-manager, e-rmis, e-pos touch and e cubes solutions were deployed to manage retail operations across all stores, the online channel and warehouse distribution centre.

“Seasonality is a large part of the retail business model and very few of the other solutions we evaluated had the functionality to manage entire stock shifts without costly development workarounds. Eurostop have an extensive retail client list and this experience is reflected in their solutions, the functionality we needed was available straight out of the box,” said Steve.

Eurostop also developed an automated part allocation service that keeps track of stock received and automatically allocates to stores whilst keeping track of balances. When the remainder of the order is fulfilled and delivered into the warehouse the allocation service alerts the warehouse operatives to which stores require stock and automatically adjusts balances within the system.

The Result – Tailored to perfection

“Stock management is absolutely essential to the profitability of our business. By investing in the development of this additional functionality we have gained considerable efficiencies in the warehouse and maintained headcount whilst expanding the business. The investment has paid for itself through the efficiencies we’ve gained,” said Steve.

From store managers through to head office, the company has realised considerable time savings by automating manual processes. Whereas previously head office would call each store for stock updates, now all the information is held centrally. Equally, any decisions made at head office, such as product or pricing data can be propagated to stores quickly through e-manager, which synchronises the company’s ERP system with the whole e-pos estate.

Improved data quality and accuracy has increased visibility across the business and enhanced decision-making. In addition to standard information such as sales by style, size, colour, location and margin, e-cubes reporting has enabled forensic analysis of sales performance over time periods, which has improved overall stock management and stock rotation between stores.

As a result of better data analysis, the commercial buying team have been able to track seasonal and buying trends per store ensuring stock is rotated to the location where it’s needed. By reducing stock stagnation, the company has minimised the amount of stock discounted in end of season sales, resulting in improved margins.

“The Eurostop team have been fantastically supportive, they guided us through the planning and implementation process and ensured we had a solution designed to address our current and future needs.”

“The expanse of features that the Eurostop solution provides has enabled us to develop an exciting roadmap of great new customer centric services. We have plans to launch a customer loyalty program, with the capabilities the Eurostop solution brings to our business, the sky’s the limit!” concluded Steve.

Company Background

Robert Goddard is an independent quality clothing business with 7 stores located in prime, high street positions, offering distinctive style and choice from some of the best design houses in Europe and America. The company also offers a service for made to measure, hand tailored suits enabling customers to enjoy a perfectly fitting, quality suit, designed to their exact requirements.

Founded by George Goddard in 1895, Robert Goddard stores still offer the same high standards of quality clothing and customer service as were insisted on by the founder over one hundred years ago.