trueCABLE amps up the voltage on its retail operation with Brightpearl

Initially selling through Amazon, the business soon began selling on Ebay before launching Direct-to-Consumer via its own Shopify powered website. To support its channel expansion the company continued to grow its product collection to create a one-stop-shop of low-voltage supplies, from precision tools and accessories through to connectors and, of course, the brand’s high-quality Ethernet cables.

“We saw the opportunity to take one product and provide a new way for shoppers to buy the supplies they need”, says John Ibbetson, VP of Sales & Business Development, speaking on the firm’s initial success.

More Bandwidth Needed

trueCABLE had seen rapid initial success but it had proven to be a double-edged sword, and problems started to creep in after the launch of its own website.

trueCABLE’s existing provider also offered no pre-built integrations to ecommerce platforms, or other third parties, which meant the team would need to work with developers to create custom integrations if they wanted to develop their offering further.

“That process would have been super costly and would have taken such a long time, we thought there simply had to be a better alternative”, adds Jessica.

To further compound the challenges facing the brand, the team was faced with needing to process all orders manually across channels while still delivering on the speed and accuracy that customers rightly expect.

“Just thinking back, it’s painful to think about,” explains Jessica. “We were entering all of our orders manually across multiple sales channels and our inventory too. We were wasting so much time on manual entry that we quickly realised there was no way to scale – we would have to hire three or four more people just to manage this process which wasn’t realistic. We needed to streamline and eliminate these tedious backend tasks.”

trueCABLE decided it needed to invest in an alternative solution that was scalable, could remove manual workflows and also offered the centralized functionality needed to manage its various sales channels with ease.

John said: “Key for us was a provider that could automate our order workstream and had out of the box integrations we could essentially plug in and go, especially to Shopify.”

The brand considered other solutions, but none quite fit the bill like Brightpearl, as John explains: “We vetted out Skubana, TradeGecko, and even Netsuite who seemed similar to our previous provider. We spoke to Brightpearl and the team was incredibly thorough. Overall, it seemed like a much quicker and easier process to transition and deploy, and that absolutely proved to be the case.”

High Voltage Impact  

Since implementation, Brightpearl has had an immediate impact on the business, not including helping the brand navigate the choppy waters of a global pandemic, which the business discusses in more detail here.

“Brightpearl allows us to be super efficient and synchronize inventory seamlessly in real time”, says Jessica. “we’re able to show customers what’s in stock at any one time, across all of our channels, from Shopify to Amazon, and that’s a huge win for us.”

The team is also benefiting from the power of Brightpearl’s automation engine. “Automation really is magic!”, explains Jessica. “There are so many areas of the business we no longer need to think about or touch. The system can also automate so many crucial workflows, from order processing to inventory and shipping, which allows us to eliminate human error, and get items into the hands of our customers much faster.

“We’re now saving 40 hours each month on tasks that previously we would have had to manage manually, which means we’re able to optimize staffing and remain lean as an organisation, despite our growth.”

Not to be put in the shade, the business is also benefiting from Brightpearl’s demand driven forecasting.

“Previously, we used to spend a lot of time – hours each week – crunching numbers and trying to assess exactly how our products were performing and what we needed to order to cover inventory levels”, says John.

“Brightpearl’s Inventory Planner functionality now allows us to dial in to a level of detail which is frankly intimidating! We no longer need to shoot from the hip; all the guesswork is taken out of what needs to be ordered, all the product data is synced and readily available so we’re able to create accurate  forecasting that’s aligned to long-term customer demand – and we save a ton of time whilst doing it.”

Perfect Connection  

trueCABLE is confident its three-tiered tech stack offers the ideal connection for future growth.

“Over the course of the last three years we’ve added three sales channels, greatly expanded our product catalog and witnessed a tremendous explosion in sales”, summarises John.  “It’s fair to say that Brightpearl has enabled much of the growth we’ve had over the last few years”.