British menswear brand Steel and Jelly has selected the Futura EPOS and retail management platform for its first store in Birmingham’s Grand Central shopping centre to guarantee real time integration instore and online. Steel and Jelly selected Futura “as a more in depth and complete solution compared to many other EPOS offerings” and one that is fully scalable – more than capable of supporting the brand’s expansion plans.
Nishil Thakrar for Steel and Jelly explains: “We required a retail management and EPOS solution that would deliver access to the level of information we need to drive accurate decision making to take the business forward. We did our research. For a young fashion brand there are plenty of web based EPOS solutions out there, but none has the depth, quality and completeness that Futura offers.”
“Supporting accurate buying and merchandise planning from day one, rather than gut feel, was crucial. We need to make sure that stock is always working for us. We won’t be waiting on store managers to alert us when stock is low. We have a complete, live picture of the business,” Thakrar added.
Steel and Jelly is starting out with the core Futura head office and EPOS system for store management, merchandising and stock control. Customer data capture and promotions are another important area. In time they expect to upgrade to a full points-based Loyalty system, seamlessly operated in-store or online.
“Again, other systems didn’t offer the flexibility we were looking for in terms of how we put promotions together,” says Nishil Thakrar. “We want to be able to bundle different product lines, for example chinos, shoes and accessories, to promote a complete look. We are already thinking about a different approach and Futura has the flexibility we need. Other systems had too many constraints.”
“To date the experience has been excellent,” Thakrar concludes.