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ERP Software for Small Business: Boosting Furniture Store Efficiency

ERP Software for Small Business: Boosting Furniture Store Efficiency
Furniture stores that use ERP software for small business benefit from increased operational efficiency and sales.

A furniture store is a dynamic work setting. To keep up with this fast-paced environment, many owners turn to ERP Software for small business to keep track of inventory movement, as well as manage all other areas of their business.

If you walk into a furniture showroom twice in one week, you’re not likely to see the same floor plan the second time. That’s because product is constantly shifting, and managers are busy moving things around to promote sales and attract customer attention.

This is just one area where enterprise resource planning (ERP) software comes in handy. When you consider your commissioned sales staff, accounting requirements and unique selling structures, it makes even more sense. Here are a few examples:

Managing Inventory

When you think about it, there’s a lot of inventory to keep track of in a furniture store: 

  • Furniture
  • Mattresses
  • Audio
  • Home theatre
  • Appliances
  • Home decor

For everything you see on the showroom floor, there’s even more being stored either in the back, or at an offsite warehouse. To manage the flow of inventory, ERP software for small business has barcode capabilities. This allows your shipping and receiving department to enter new items into the store database as they arrive, while your sales team can remove them when they make a sale.

If you operate a furniture store with more than one outlet, be sure to read our post: Why Inventory Control Software Is a Must for Multiple Locations.

Selling Features

Selling furniture is rarely a straightforward business. Your range of customers could be anything from people with insurance claims to someone who wants to outfit his theatre room with the latest home entertainment system. You also get customers who spot a good deal in your weekly flyer and decide it’s time to upgrade the bedroom set.

For the latter, ERP software lets you bundle individual inventory items into a kit (also known as a bill of materials). Let’s say the flyer deal included the following items:

  • Bed frame
  • Mattress
  • Box spring
  • Bedding
  • Matching nightstands

By having these items readily available in a kit, you can sell the lot with a single keystroke and have the invoice reflect the grouped sale price. You can create the invoice to show each individual item in the kit, which is a handy feature for warranty tracking purposes.

Commissioned Sales

A motivated sales team can go a long way towards increasing sales. Furniture stores that use business management software are equipped to track who sells what so commissions are distributed correctly.

You can configure the software so that every time an invoice is created, a salesperson is attached to it. If more than one member helped with the sale you can create a split commission. That’s a fair way of handling the transaction if a customer shops one day, and then comes back later to complete the transaction with a different sales representative.

Could your furniture store operations use a little streamlining? Windward’s ERP software for small business features an integrated module specifically for furniture stores. Call us to learn how we can bring extra efficiency to your business.

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