Popcultcha Collects Quadruple Savings After Automating Operations on Brightpearl

“Implementing Brightpearl has quadrupled our efficiencies… while maintaining the same output” – Adam Benson, Operations Lead, Popcultcha

Sometimes the benefits of switching to a retail operating system that offers powerful no-code automation are significant yet subtle; a handful of hires saved here, a few hours shaved from key processes there.

Other times, the impact is truly profound.

The story of Popcultcha, the largest and most extensive online store of pop culture merchandise in Australia, falls into the latter category.

Founded in 1993, the multichannel brand operates hugely successful wholesale, e-commerce and bricks and mortar businesses specializing in ‘weird and wacky’ toys, collectibles, records, games, posters, art and novelties from franchises including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel, DC Comics and many more.

After struggling to manage orders, shipping, invoicing, and other processes for 80,000 SKUs across multiple locations with its now-sunsetted POS software, Popcultcha joined Brightpearl.

“Joining Brightpearl has been a huge, huge benefit for the business,” says Adam.

“We needed a solution that could connect to our e-commerce platform Magento in a meaningful way, as well as Zendesk for customer service and to our shipping connectors. Brightpearl was clearly the best option for that.

Cultivating success

“We knew where our inefficiencies were – and it was everywhere where things were being done manually.

“Brightpearl’s automation functionality has made things so much more efficient, clean and streamlined.

“As a result, we’re ahead of targets we set ourselves for next year.”

As a leading retail operating system, Brightpearl is packed with built-for-retail features including market-leading inventory planning, customized reporting and a library of Plug & Play integrations which offers native, ‘out of the box’ connections to leading apps and tools, including to Popcultcha’s Magento webstore.

A top Brightpearl feature – and the one which has been the biggest game-changer for Popcultcha – is the platform’s powerful, no-code Automation Engine. This has enabled the retailer to quickly automate around 35 manual workflows with impressive results.

One of the biggest transformations has been in invoicing, where automation has enabled a leaner staff and major time savings.

Adam says: “Previously, every order from Magento needed to be manually invoiced.

“Now, with Brightpearl, we can split those orders, and only the pertinent information gets sent to the broker. It’s a lot more efficient because we’re not manually making any changes to shipping labels anymore.

Weird, wacky – and wonderful

“For high value pre-orders, we can automatically invoice for full payment when items arrive in stock.

“Implementing Brightpearl has quadrupled our efficiencies in our invoicing area. We’ve reduced our invoicing team significantly while maintaining the same output, allowing us to redirect staff to other essential tasks.”

With high volumes of complex orders coming in from multiple channels, Popcultcha required a custom solution to batch and process orders.

Brightpearl has been able to deliver this by offering direct auto-allocation of orders and supporting the creation of a custom app via its extensive partner network and deep open API.

Adam says: “We didn’t previously have a way of splitting orders, which was an issue because the majority of new products added to our stores are on pre-order.

“If a customer had seven different pre-orders in our system and they all arrived together in one container, we had no way of finding all the orders for that customer and shipping them together.

“We’d end up sending seven different shipments to a customer, incurring seven different shipping costs. It wasn’t good for sustainability or our bottom line.

“With Brightpearl we can automatically sort orders that contain pre-orders. And the business solutions team at Brightpearl helped us create a custom batching app connected seamlessly to Brightpearl as our central hub.

“Now, all orders can be allocated and fulfilled automatically. Orders are automatically split so pre-orders are moved out – we don’t have to worry about manually opening every order and taking the pre-order out of it. It’s such a massive time saver.”

The day-to-day benefit of processing orders automatically has been significant – but it’s when the business has high volume events – such as special releases – that the true game-changing impact of Brightpearl automation becomes apparent.

Processing orders after an event would previously take weeks – now it can be done in a day.

Popping success

Adam says: “It’s hard to comprehend the difference between doing things manually and having Brightpearl.

“It’s not just the time savings – though that is a massive win. It’s also the impact on mistakes. Our error rate has gone from 15% to 0%.

“We don’t have to worry about sending the correct information to our shipping providers or whether the address labels are correct. Brightpearl does all that work for us.

“Using the Automation Engine, we’ve also been able to set up rules to automatically check for fraud, which can sometimes be an issue.”

“It’s not just the time savings – though that is a massive win. It’s also the impact on mistakes. Our error rate has gone from 15% to 0%.” – Adam Benson, Operations Lead, Popcultcha

As well as using Brightpearl’s Automation Engine for managing retail orders, invoicing, allocation and fulfilment, it has also freed up employees to take on more strategic roles.

Staff can now be redeployed, for instance, to help with conventions without impacting daily operations and are used for rolling stock checks, which have helped identify and list products that were previously considered out of stock.

Adam adds: “The time savings and the cost savings – they are definitely there. But one of the best things about using Brightpearl has been allowing us to move people into different areas of the business instead of wasting their talent on manual tasks.

“We recently did Perth Comic Con and we had 12 or 13 staff members that were able to go and enjoy the event and support our stands because their old jobs were taken care of by automation.

“We’ve got big plans to grow and expand even more, including internationally, and this has really helped shore up the future of our business.”

Find out how Brightpearl can help your business grow fearlessly with a free demo.