Stores Magazine, May 2007
Just Sports scores big with new replenishment system
Very few experiences are more painful to a retailer than having a store full of customers unable to find the items they want to buy. For Kevin Palmer, co- owner and vice president of Phoenix-based Just Sports, a 14-unit chain specializing in licensed apparel and accessories, out-of-stocks - especially at peak selling seasons - were creating too many unrecoverable lost selling opportunities.
"We do half of our business when there are big games and at holidays," Palmer says, "so when customers at Christmas are making destination shopping trips to our stores [only to be] unable to find what they want, we have to act."
Palmer says that Just Sports, which replenishes its stores overnight from a warehouse no more than three hours away from any of the stores, urgently needed a computerized system that would let it keep track of the inventory at the warehouse. Because the stores are small (1,400 to 2,400 sq. ft., with backrooms averaging 60 sq. ft.), Just Sports is completely dependent on the warehouse to replenish what each store has sold the day before.
In researching possible solutions, Palmer and Just Sports president Kelly Roberts found Clearwater, Fla.-based Retail Teamwork, which was developing an integrated, all-in-one solution for specialty retailers.
Retail Teamwork uses Microsoft Dynamics (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions) as its operating platform. Its solutions are designed to meet the needs of retailers operating from five to 500 stores, and "can be customized to meet specific unique business needs," says founder and president Michael Mauerer.
Among its core business workflow features are applications to manage accounting, inventory, distribution and sales, as well as the ability to provide analytical reports.
Just Sports' DOS-based system simply wasn't fast enough to ensure timely next- day replenishments. "With our old system, we would get our sales information from each store pulled at the end of the night," Palmer says.
But at Christmas, when stores are open past 10 p.m., that information wasn't coming in until midnight or 1 a.m. "Then we'd have to import that information from our POS system into our warehouse system, and that might take several hours because all the stores would be coming in with all this data at the same time," he says.
As a result, "Our warehouse crew often couldn't start replenishing what the stores had sold the previous day until about 3 a.m., and it would often take another seven to eight hours, going as fast as we could possibly go to finish." That was problematic, in that the stores open at 9 a.m.
During the 2005 holiday selling season, "customers were flocking in, so by the time our warehouse trucks got to the stores, our associates couldn't get the merchandise out until night time," Palmer recalls. "So now essentially, we were two days behind."
Now, with Retail Teamwork, Just Sports is using a bidirectional broadband connection to stream data into and out of its main and store-level computer systems continuously in real time.
"I don't have to wait for the polling process to finish or for the poll data to be processed," Palmer says. "I can literally replenish overnight."
Competitive edge
This past December, Just Sports enjoyed a 25 percent sales increase. The Retail Teamwork system wasn't solely responsible for the lift, Palmer acknowledges, but "replenishment is a huge part of our business" and the system "gives us an edge on our competition."
In addition to polling data from his stores, Palmer is also able to stream data down into the stores, giving associates the ability to look at the inventory at the warehouse and at other stores. Overstocked stores are now easily able to transfer products to under-stocked stores, balancing and maximizing inventory investments.
Although data transmitted online over a network connection is much more up to date than data polled and refreshed nightly, there is the danger that data will be lost if the network goes down. Retail Teamwork supports a back-up database at each store, so if the system ever did go down, the stores could continue to sell and operate normally. Data can be resynchronized when the system comes on line.
To meet one of Just Sports' unique needs, Retail Teamwork created a customized application that lets the retailer view and analyze returns in two different ways: full returns for cash and exchanges. Having that functionality, says Mauerer, gives Palmer the ability to implement a loss prevention application that can identify potential exchange-return fraud.
Just Sports began implementing Retail Teamwork last May. It took about a month to roll out, with Retail Teamwork running all the systems redundantly. "They made the bridge between the old system and the new system so they could talk to each other," Palmer says, "and there were absolutely no disruptions." During implementation, Retail Teamwork was able to electronically transmit all the data from the old systems without manual intervention.
Retail Teamwork has embedded its software with approximately 50 short (one- to three-minute) self-training videos that allow users to train themselves. Palmer was impressed with how easy it was to learn.
"We had a meeting with all the managers," he says, and "I was quite worried, thinking 'I am going to need time, manuals, documentation.' Well, we started in the morning and we took a mid-morning break. When I came back from the break, I saw my managers sitting in front of the two computers ... ringing up sales and having races with each other."
Quick ROI
If a retailer does not need to buy a new POS system or other hardware, it could see ROI from Retail Teamwork in less than a year, says Mauerer. The only expense would be a per-store licensing fee that ranges from $100 to $200 per month.
Palmer estimates that if retailers need to buy a new POS system and other hardware, as was the case with Just Sports, they can anticipate ROI in less than two years. "I know the system that I have now is worth much more than what I originally intended to pay," he says.
One of the features Just Sports will be turning on soon is full software integration among POS, distribution, invoicing and accounting.
"Right now we are running multiple applications, islands of software that are not integrated," he says. "We have software for accounting, a different software application for POS, another application for inventory management and so on. We also have Word documents doing one thing; Excel documents doing something else [and] QuickBooks doing accounting."
Retail Teamwork "will bring all those applications into one piece of software, giving us a complete front-to-end solution," Palmer says.
Retail Teamwork Powered by Microsoft Dynamics Expands International Presence in Brazil
Saõ Paulo, April 10, 2007
Retail Teamwork, the first all-in-one POS and retail application using Microsoft Dynamics as an embedded technology platform, was released in Brazil today. Retail Teamwork made this announcement at Autocom 2007, one of Brazil's premiere trade shows. The announcement took place following the keynote address by Michael Mauerer, the CEO of Retail Teamwork, on the subject of the next evolution of retail technology.
Retail Teamwork's expansion in Brazil is led by Pro Varejo, a leading national distributor of IT solutions for retail merchandising and POS. "We currently support about one thousand retail stores in the Brazil market," said Ms. Suzana Bueno, COO of Pro Varejo. "We are very enthusiastic about the technical powers of Retail Teamwork and Microsoft Dynamics. It is a whole new level of retail software for Brazil."
"Microsoft is extremely pleased to see Retail Teamwork's presence in this region. We are excited about the possibilities that this software brings to the Brazilian retailer", said Mr. Juan Mertins, Microsoft's Managing Director for Retail and Hospitality in Latin America. "Retail Teamwork has effectively leverages the power of the Microsoft Dynamics business platform to provide a sophisticated POS and retail solution."
Microsoft Dynamics is a rich platform permitting industry specific business solutions to meet a wide range of customer requirements. Retail Teamwork makes optimal use of Microsoft Dynamics to provide an integrated speciality retail and POS solution.
Women's Wear Daily - February 07, 2007
"Retail Service Helps Lift Sales 25 Percent at Sporting Goods Company" by Cate T. Corcoran
A new integrated retail service aimed at midsize retailers boosted sales at the $14 million company Just Sports of Mesa, Ariz. The near real-time sales reporting capability of Retail Teamwork let Just Sports respond quickly to trends and helped ring in a 25 percent increase in sales over the holiday season.
"It gave us an edge we were never able to have," said Just Sports owner Kevin Palmer. The company operates 14 stores of 1,500 to 2,000 square feet each in regional malls in Arizona and Colorado. The stores sell jerseys, hats and other men's, women's and children's apparel with team logos.
Like any other retailer, Just Sports has to be concerned with fashion and trends, said Palmer. But in addition, there is the added unknown of which teams will be popular and how they will do throughout any given sports season. And because so many residents of Arizona are originally from somewhere else, many different teams have followers, he added.
The 20-year old retails was looking for a new point-of-sale system to replace its ancient software, which ran on DOS instead of Windows. Just Sports considered Retail Pro and Microsoft's Retail Management System, among others, and ended up becoming a beta tester for Retail Teamwork because of its neat real-time sales reporting capability.
Retail Teamwork of Clearwater, Fla., was started by Michael Mauerer a little over a year ago. Mauerer founded Retail Pro and was involved with Quickbooks Point of Sale. The Retail Teamwork software is based on Microsoft Dynamics, the suite of business software that includes point of sale, but has been altered to work for business with five to 500 stores. The software runs on any PC and includes point of sale, inventory, pricing, transfer, financial, supply chain, and customer information. The service costs $100 to $200 per month per location.
Just Sports started its rollout in June and was finished by the end of the month. During the most recent National Football League season, a game was coming up where the Steelers were playing the Cardinals. The day before the game, Palmer could watch from the headquarters and see which locations were selling the most Steelers merchandise. By midday, Palmer knew which stores could take which merchandise and how much.
In the past, Palmer would have to wait until 2 a.m. to get sales data. By 3 a.m. , a crew would be in the warehouse pulling stock and loading the trucks. But by the time the trucks arrived at the stores in the morning, they were already open for business. During busy seasons, employees couldn't restock until night, which meant a two-day delay.
Now the warehouse crew comes in the evening, and trucks are loaded and ready to go by 1 a.m. By 7 a.m., the trucks have already made their deliveries, and store staff stock the shelves before doors open.
Palmer estimates the new software has helped Just Sports realize tens of thousands of dollars in sales it otherwise would not have had. "Over time it definitely helped us optimize our inventory and increase sales," he said. " There are multiple factors but the software definitely helped us to optimize the sellthrough of products."
Palmer, who said he hopes to open an online store soon, said Christmas sales were also up because the company has been doing more marketing. What's more, the 25 percent increase during the holiday season came on top of an already good Christmas the year before. "So to do an increase on top of that is very good," he said.