You've got sales, customers, and more rave reviews than you can count - but how about software? LookFar examines their recent implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning software suite for a premium retailer, and the high-level details of how an ERP can function for similar businesses.

1. High End Retail:
LEVERAGING TECH

2. The Amazon Effect
The demands of a modern consumer:
Fast SmartFriendlyEasy
For high-end,
aesthetically
focused brands,
beautiful edge-to-
edge imagery is
creating slow load
times. Especially
problematic for
mobile shopping.
Amazon has an
unrivaled amount
of consumer usage
data, helping them
make suggestions
so that consumers
shop more
frequently and
spend more
money.
75% of customers
say that a positive
experience
motivates them to
spend more with a
company. 78%
have exited a
transaction
because of poor
customer service.
Intuitive menus,
site search
functionality, color
hierarchy,
integration of
customer reviews –
all help contribute
to a seamless and
pleasant browsing
experience.

3. Integrated enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems allow smaller
businesses to organize and leverage
their own data to become more
efficient and intelligent.
How can
your
brand
compete?

4. A Case Study

5. After experimenting with the product during her
post-Katrina home renovation, Lisa Rickert saw a
massive market opportunity. She founded
Unfolded, the only U.S. distributor of the product.
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ has been around since 1990. A longtime
favorite product of the DIY community, it was known for being expensive
and difficult to find.

6. In 5 years, Unfolded’s portfolio expanded from 2 Gulf South retailers
to more than 600 stockists in the United States, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand.
Their entire system consisted of an Excel spreadsheet, an Expression
Engine website, and a free CRM.
Unfolded ships more than 40 cases of product daily.

7. There are hundreds of commercially-available ERP systems. However
most of the robust solutions, such as Microsoft and SAP, cater to
large corporations and have prohibitive implementation costs.
LookFar recommended Odoo, an open-source ERP. Choosing an open-
source solution gives a consumer access to their ERP's back-end
framework, allowing developers to customize the software to their
unique needs

8. In the case of Unfolded, LookFar used the Odoo framework to build a
customer relationship management (CRM) tool that would allow them
to better manage and track their growing number of stockists.
Instead of applying via email, stockists now enter the system through
a custom portal embedded on Unfolded’s website. The sales pipeline
is managed by a drag-and-drop interface that makes it extremely
easy and intuitive.
.

9. After successfully implementing the Odoo CRM for Unfolded, Lisa decided
to implement the full ERP suite for her new venture, Ave Home, a
distributor of high-end furniture, including raw furniture for use with
Chalk Paint™.

10. Inventory
Management
Ave needed a system that could track incoming orders from the
manufacturer, manage stockist orders, and document when the orders
had been fulfilled.
Shipping
Integration
Shipping was a real pain point for Unfolded, so Ave’s ERP was built to
integrate directly with UPS. Shipping costs are calculated based on
number of pieces and weight, and viewable by shoppers.
Ongoing
Marketing
Email campaigns, retargeted ads, and social media were all used to
attract new stockists. Ave needed a marketing analytics suite to track
the effects of their efforts.
Reporting &
Finances
Creating a system that fully integrated with Ave's accounting system
made it possible for the company to perform advanced forecasting and
make more intelligent financial decisions.
A fully integrated system means:

11. ERP systems can exist completely “behind-the-scenes.” The user still
gets a highly personalized experience, but their data is being stored
and analyzed by the business.
website or mobile app
Inventory
Management
Accounting Shipping Reporting
CRM Reporting Marketing Add’l Modules
ERP

12. For Ave, we used Odoo’s
website builder to create their
front-end web presence for a
truly seamless experience.
For Unfolded, we built the site
using Wordpress, and then
created custom Python plugins
to integrate with Odoo.

13. Ave’s fully-integrated system gives them the advantage of extremely
robust reporting, including metrics such as:
Sales by item
Returns by item
Sales by customer
Customer retention
Purchase drop-out (when, where, which items?)
Conversion rate by lead source
With an ERP they are able to better market their products and engage
with customers.

14. Lessons Learned

15. 1 Open source software gives retail companies greater ability to
customize solutions as needed.
An integrated system will cut down on the amount of time dedicated to
data entry and report creation.
ERP systems don’t perfectly replicate paper-based or multiple software-
based business processes. They should replace or augment these
existing solutions.
A ERP-system is as valuable as you make it. The more you view and use
the data you’re storing, the more you’ll be able to leverage it to make
stronger business decisions.
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