How Kaisercraft managed their rapid multi-store growth with Retail Express

The Company

Producing high-quality, beautiful stationery, arts and crafts products since the early 2000s, Kaisercraft is a family-owned business with a global wholesale customer base and a rapidly growing Australian retail presence — expanding their product range beyond purely arts and crafts supplies to include luxury stationery goods, greeting cards, gifts, and homewares.

The Problem

Kaisercraft’s incredible growth brought about a level of complexity that their previous POS system simply couldn’t handle. 

What was needed was a scalable, stable and cloud-based platform that could be easily implemented as Kaisercraft added new stores, and handle high-level transactions so staff could stay efficient.

“As a high-volume multi-store retailer, we have tens of thousands of transactions going through each day. We needed a POS system that could allow our store staff to efficiently and reliably process those transactions and that could not only handle massive amounts of data generated but also provide real-time business intelligence from it.”

– Mark Sears, General Manager

The Solution

Kaisercraft evaluated several software solutions but quickly concluded that Retail Express offered the scalable, cloud-based platform and multi-store, omnichannel features they were seeking. 

The key features and integrations Retail Express were able to offer meant Kaisercraft could access an intuitive point of sale system that came with an Offline POS mode to ensure staff could handle high transaction levels, see stock levels across each store and process sales even with the internet being down. It also meant they could finally integrate their in-store POS software with their eCommerce systems using Retail Express’ Shopify integration capabilities — systems that were previously separated. 

With their decision made, the focus turned to rolling Retail Express out across Kaisercraft’s stores with a hands-on implementation process that stood out as a major point of difference for General Manger, Mark Sears.

“The implementation of Retail Express was very smooth. Having a dedicated point of contact and a structured process to follow meant we could roll the software out across our stores with confidence. This was a major drawcard for us in selecting Retail Express that they don’t just build software, but they also get hands on with helping you implement it in your business”

– Mark Sears, General Manager

The Features

The Results

In a high-volume retail operation experiencing rapid growth like Kaisercraft, transaction handling, minimising manual tasks and offering cross-channel purchasing options were critical to maintaining staff and customer experience as they expanded. 

Point of sale solutions

After a seamless implementation of Retail Express’ software, Kaisercraft were equipped with a POS solution capable of handling massive volumes of transactions while avoiding delays and possible data loss — a feature vital to their financial performance and customer retention. 

General Manager, Mark Sears, commented on just how easily the POS software is for staff to use, right down to the mass search capability to instantly identify a correct SKU out of hundreds of thousands of items in the instance that there’s no barcode to scan.

Retail Express’ Offline POS mode also became a crucial feature. A reliable Offline POS feature allowed Kaisercraft to continue processing orders in the instance that their internet connection went down — solving a stressful situation any retailer would be familiar with. 

eCommerce & cross-channel voucher capability

Being able to finally integrate their eCommerce and in-store operations using Retail Express’ Shopify integration, Kaisercraft began to offer customers the option to purchase and redeem vouchers through the channel they preferred — driving higher redemption rates.

“The ability to offer gift vouchers that are purchasable and redeemable both online and in-store has already been a game changer for us. We know that our customers cross over from our bricks and mortar stores to online, so this makes for a far better shopping experience for our customers and drives higher redemption rates.

– Mark Sears, General Manager

Automated stock replenishment

Replenishing their stores with the right quantities of inventory was time and labour intensive before Kaisercraft’s switch to Retail Express. Each Store Manager had to manage the process manually which was adding up to lots of hours of admin across the business every week. 

With Retail Express, Kaisercraft has been able to automate their stock replenishment process, using recommended reordering amounts and saving every Store Manager countless hours of productive time.

“The automated replenishment capabilities in Retail Express have massively cut down manual admin for our Store Managers and allow them to now focus that time on value-adding activities instead. When you multiply the time saved per store by all our locations, it’s a real game changer for us.

– Mark Sears, General Manager

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Book a personalised demo to discover how Kaisercraft expanded their business with confidence with a powerful, reliable POS system and cross-channel integration from Retail Express.