Bicycle retailer 99 Bikes has been experiencing mixed results over recent years due to the rapid change in the consumer market. This has forced the retailer to seek out innovative solutions to help them progress in the current environment, rather than risk being left behind.
According to owner Matt Turner, since growing 99 Bikes to 11 stores across the eastern seaboard of Australia and an online store he has had to relook at the business model to motivate staff to increase sales, control stock over multiple stores and integrate software that would grow with the company.
As a result of this, 99 Bikes has teamed up with POS software, POS systems and stock control solutions provider Retail Express. Utilising the latest cloud-based technology, Retail Express delivers live, uncorrupted information on all aspects of 99 Bikes business.
For instance, sales staff in all 99 Bikes stores can now see in real-time exactly how other sales staff are performing against their sales budget.
According to Turner, this has had a direct and measurable impact on the revenue generated by each 99 Bikes store.
“It means we can now run competitions and sales rewards which lead to improved sales revenue from our staff,” he said.
Turner said that since implementing Retail Express, the business has also seen a considerable improvement in the way that stock is purchased, received and more importantly transferred between locations. Stock optimisation improved the financial return on stock by as much as 8 per cent.
“We have become a lot more efficient in receiving stock and keeping track of stock. It’s definitely very user friendly,” he said.
At the same time, the administration functions with the Retail Express system remains easy and logical to use. “We had 60 or 70 new staff join the business in two years and they all had to learn the system. We highly value something that people can pick up quickly,” Turner said.