Integrated, Flexible, Data-Rich Retail Management System Helps to Deliver Insights to Drive Retail Business
What does a CPA who also managed operations for several Indy racing teams and has no retail experience do when he’s ready for a change? Open a couple of hardware stores.
Never one to shy away from a new challenge, Steve Fusek, President at Fusek’s True Value Hardware in Indianapolis took the plunge in 2004. He recalled, “My wife and I didn’t know what we didn’t know when we jumped in and underestimated what it took to start a business from the ground up.”
Adopting the True Value-recommended Epicor Eagle retail management system was an early decision that provided clarity from day one. “Epicor helped us right-size the business quickly,” Fusek explained. “We knew where we were financially, we had immediate control of our expenses and balance sheet, and we didn’t have any unknowns in that regard.”
Today, Fusek operates two brick-and-mortar True Value stores in Indianapolis and a thriving online presence on Amazon.
With his background in numbers, Fusek appreciates the ability to quickly and effortlessly access the right data to make informed decisions. He shared, “I can get a snapshot with Epicor Eagle viewers or easily export data to a different platform such as Excel, so I can analyze it.” That data accessibility gives Fusek the actionable business insights he needs to easily identify what’s working and what needs attention so he can adjust swiftly.
More recently, Fusek added Epicor Compass software for enhanced business intelligence, giving him the additional ability to write custom reports. “The biggest limitation has always been being creative enough to come up with ideas,” he said. “Epicor Compass is so powerful that I need to dream bigger to get the most out of it.” He added that with guidance from Epicor, he has been able to expand the value that he can extract from the solution.
Inventory and purchasing were additional critical areas supported by Epicor. Inventory Planner that helped to enable Fusek to anticipate purchasing demand and understand how much is selling and when. Epicor Tablet POS and Mobile+ helped by offering the flexibility to manage inventory in real-time from the floor and identify order points. He cited another example. “Location codes on each item allow us to generate reports that highlight which sections of the store perform best and worst, giving us valuable information to make decisions about where we place product.”
Epicor helped us right-size the business quickly. We knew where we were financially, we had immediate control of our expenses and balance sheet, and we didn’t have any unknowns in that regard.
In addition, Epicor has transformed how price changes are done at Fusek True Value. For lines such as Benjamin Moore, Milwaukee Tools, and Yeti, which have thousands of products, making price changes used to be a cumbersome and tedious manual process. “No one wanted to take it on because it's an overwhelming job,” Fusek admitted. “Now with Eagle, the hours-long price change task is automated. We’ll get a price change on a Monday, import the data in Eagle; it matches up the SKUs, and in a few minutes, thousands of products are updated. Epicor slashed the time required by 90%.”
Perhaps more importantly, automated price changes preserve Fusek’s margins. “If items are selling for the wrong price, that impacts profitability, especially in inflationary periods. We need a system that empowers us to stay on top of price changes. Epicor Eagle does exactly that,” Fusek highlighted.
Fusek utilizes an open-to-buy inventory management system.
Now with Eagle, the hours-long price change task is automated. We’ll get a price change on a Monday, import the data in Eagle; it matches up the SKUs, and in a few minutes, thousands of products are updated. Epicor slashed the time required by 90%.
As he creates POs each week, Epicor helps to provide him with data on what has sold and how much replenishment he needs to purchase. Additionally, he uses Epicor Compass to run sales reports and help ensure that sales are on track to cover payroll. Fusek observed, “Epicor enables us to adjust the staff scheduling daily if needed, to hit our sales targets. There were times in the past when we were overscheduled. Epicor enabled us to right-size staffing to match sales demand.”
Given his finance experience, Fusek considered it essential to have a general ledger function built into the POS software. He clarified, “I didn't have any interest in transferring our sales to another system every day. That is inefficient and just didn't make sense to me.”
Additionally, Epicor offered an all-in-one solution that has helped to provide benefits for capital expenditure budgeting. Viewers in the general ledger show spending by month for the year to easily pinpoint anomalies and create smarter fiscal plans.
We need a system that empowers us to stay on top of those changes. Epicor Eagle does exactly that.
Budgeting for computer refreshes is an important example. Fusek disclosed, “When the stores first opened, we purchased new computers, creating a large replacement burden in five to seven years. I didn’t want to take a big hit replacing all those computers at one time. To make the burden smaller and more predictable, we were able to identify a schedule to replace two computers per store per year. That gave us a more feasible plan.”
Fusek has imbued the stores with an ethos of continuous improvement, saying, “Our approach is to learn how to do what we do better every day.” He found a kindred spirit in Epicor, especially in the Epicor Learning Center.
“I'm a massive fan of training-on-demand,” he imparted. “It’s a hugely valuable tool. The information is concise and easy-to-understand and you come away knowing exactly what you need to know. I’m glad we invested in that.”
