An iconic shopping destination and landmark on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Zitomer Pharmacy, needed a software solution to address growing security concerns. They also needed better visibility into their inventory. Epicor Eagle is a retail solution that helped improve data security and cut inventory by 15% in the first year.
In addition to filling countless prescription orders, Zitomer has expanded into specialty areas such as cosmetics, hair products, home fragrance, toys and electronics, children's clothing, prepared foods, lingerie, hosiery, and women's accessories, such as hats, scarves, gloves, plus costume and fine jewelry.
Located on Madison Avenue, Zitomer prides itself on carrying trendy, current, must-have items, while also maintaining a wide selection of prominent brands like RéVive, Roger and Gallet, Bvlgari, Frédéric Fekkai, Minnie Rose, and more.
Zitomer strives to offer an unparalleled level of customer service and maintain the industry's most knowledgeable staff. To preserve their quality service levels, the company decided to move away from an antiquated software system and implemented the Epicor Eagle N Series retail business management solution.
"With Epicor, we can tell them [customers] that we're doing all we can to keep their information safe."
“We wanted to find a point of sale (POS) system that would eliminate our security concerns, streamline inventory management, improve billing operations, and better manage our nearly 3,500 house-charge accounts- Epicor was a perfect fit,” says Frank Vella, vice president, Zitomer Pharmacy.
“We can already see that our customer service levels are improving because we are able to spend less time on tedious back-office tasks, and more time with our customers.”
“With mounting concerns about data breaches in retail, we wanted a system that would address security-not only in our back-office operations, but also our front-end POS. For example, implementing proper security at POS to limit price overrides and decrease return fraud. We were also concerned with credit card and security breaches to our house account personal information. Epicor has a solid history of protecting businesses, which is a big reason we selected their Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) enabled security solutions,” says Vella. “When we feel secure as a business, that trickles down to our customers. With Epicor, we can tell them that we are doing all we can to keep their information safe.”
“As for managing our house-charge accounts, we have been able to benefit from detailed analytics for each account, which lets us analyze where a customer is to determine whether or not to approve a credit extension,” says Vella. “The intuitive dashboards provide the information we need that wasn't available with our old system.”
As a family-owned and operated business with three shopping floors and over 15,000 square feet of retail space, including a 5,000 square foot children's toy area-strong inventory management is crucial for the success of Zitomer.
"The Eagle N Series system seamlessly integrated into our business, not only with our Rx30 Pharmacy Management System, but also every aspect of the business. We have a very big seasonal business, so it's important to have our usual inventory, seasonal, and post-seasonal inventory at the appropriate stock levels. Inventory management was key functionality we liked about the Epicor system," says Vella. “By utilizing the Epicor Eagle Inventory Planner solution, we now have better control on our inventory. At times, we could be sitting on $67,000 worth of makeup in our cosmetic department, for example. Now, we can keep tabs on our inventory in all departments and make adjustments to carry the right items at the right time. In the first year of implementing Epicor solutions, better reporting has helped us cut our inventory by 15 percent which improved cash flow. We were able to free up approximately $100,000 in cash flow for our business.”
“We also use the Epicor Compass tool for other reporting. For example, we find it instrumental to generate reports with Compass to see what product lines are selling the best. This helps us determine which orders to place for next year's inventory. This saves us money and gives us peace of mind that we'll have the products that our customers want,” he says.
To be successful in the independent pharmacy space, retailers must have access to up-to-the-minute information anytime, anywhere. “One of the biggest benefits of the Eagle N Series system is the real-time information,” says Vella. “It's quick, easy to use, it stores all the information we need, and we can share that information with our customers to help increase loyalty. The system's information-capture capabilities and e-mail receipts functionality has been a big plus for our customer base.”
“We have been able to build our e-mail list, and because we have such a high-traffic business, there are many customers that would probably never have heard from us. With e-mail receipts and customer information we're able to track them better and send them relevant promotions-which engages the shopper, increases traffic to our stores and website, and builds true customer loyalty.”
“Our relationship with Epicor is more than just about software. We view it as a critical partnership that is truly helping our business grow,” says Vella. “By providing our staff with a solution that services the customer quickly and securely, stores credit card data for delivery, and helps with house account management we are able to better compete against the big box stores. We look forward to developing our business further, including online, and Epicor will be a crucial part of that expansion.”
