Want Gifts reduce their order processing times by over 80% with Brightpearl

The background

Want Gifts based in Halifax in Yorkshire focuses on high quality furniture, lighting and home accessories. The company was started by Elaine Wilkinson 14 years ago, following advice that she should apply her Interior Design skills to a business in which she could buy in and sell beautiful home accessories and furniture.

Starting as a mother and son duo, the company has continued to grow, taking online sales via two Shopify websites and an eBay store, with Shopify being their largest sales channel. Along the way, the team has won the Feefo Gold Trusted Merchant Award three times.

The team is currently selling to the retail market only right now, but they are currently planning to branch out into the wholesale market as well. We spoke with Want Gifts Director, Adam Watson to find out more about how Brightpearl fits into their business.

The challenge

Prior to implementing Brightpearl in 2013, the team were using a combination of Tradebox and Sage Accounting software. However, they found the Tradebox platform too clunky and slow for their needs, whilst the inventory management module wasn’t robust enough. This was combined with their Sage Accounting package being in a separate system, which also meant that their accounting was never up-to-date. Thus, they knew something needed to change quickly.

Whilst considering Brightpearl, Adam explained that they had also considered ChannelAdvisor. But in the end, it was Brightpearl’s integrated real time accounting that caught the attention of Adam and his team: “We needed the best system to do everything, all-in-one. We considered ChannelAdvisor, but it doesn’t have the integrated accounting and it’s quite expensive.”

Key Challenges:

• Slow, clunky software
• Inventory management wasn’t robust enough
• Accounting was in a separate system, resulting in outdated financial reports

The solution

Since Adam and his team have now been using Brightpearl for the past few years, we asked him to tell us about the strengths of the Brightpearl software. He told us: “The reporting is very good. Plus, the syncing of stock to all our channels is what we were after. With Brightpearl, you can know your numbers really well as a retailer: you know your best sellers and when you’re running out of stock.”

Adam also went on to explain that “Brightpearl has definitely been a time saver, especially for processing orders, ordering stock and accounting. Order processing used to take 30-40 minutes, maybe an hour. Now it takes a few minutes.”

Regarding the support and help that is on offer from Brightpearl, Adam says he and his team can only say good things about the help they get and that they “always get quick responses.”

Recently, the team have started to shift their focus for their product range. Now that they can see detailed reports in Brightpearl, they’ve been able to keep stocking their best sellers and higher value items, whilst removing lower value items from their range. This has allowed them to focus on the higher end of the market more so than previously. For Adam and his team, this means: “Fewer items in stock, but a strong focus on quality.”

Finally, we asked Adam to sum up Brightpearl in one sentence for us, to which he replied: “Everything a multichannel retailer would need.”

Key Strengths:

• Detailed reporting
• Syncs stock across multiple channels
• Order processing and retail workflows are now more efficient

The future

Looking ahead to the future, the team are planning a move to different premises, as well as a launch into the B2B wholesale market.

And as a final note, Adam left us with this upbeat comment: “We’re like a family here. Everyone enjoys coming into work, so a nice working environment is always what we’re after.”

All the Want Gifts websites:
Decorelo: www.decorelo.co.uk
Hollywood Mirrors: www.hollywoodmirrors.co.uk