Increasing margins with fewer price changes
Adding the Epicor Eagle Pricing Planner application to the business helped Rylee's implement a variety of new pricing strategies. “We were very loyal Margin Master fans, so we were hesitant to move over to Eagle Pricing Planner. Both systems did a good job pricing Ace items, but one important benefit of Eagle Pricing Planner is easy pricing for our outside vendors,” said Terpstra. “With Eagle Pricing Planner we set our pricing parameter by vendor, class, or cost and it automatically recalculates prices. Additionally, because it's based on cost, when the cost goes up, the retail price automatically goes up. We gained upwards of 4.5 percent in margin from our outside vendors with Eagle Pricing Planner.”
Solution delivers key information when away from the store
The Epicor Eagle Mobile Manager solution gives Terpstra the freedom to track key metrics and keep her eyes on sales while she's away. “Eagle Mobile Manager software is especially useful for busy days, extreme weather or sales promotions,” said Terpstra. “Two summers ago while we were on vacation, Michigan was experiencing a major heat wave. Eagle Mobile Manager software enabled me to see very high air conditioner sales. From the car, I ordered a truckload of air conditioners to be delivered the next morning. Those additional sales gave us a record month and we made the evening news featuring an Ace truck full of air conditioners backing up to our door-they called it the 'coolest truck' in town.”
Software makes it easy to understand your business
“The crown jewel of Eagle software is the Epicor Compass application. We use it every single day for sales and gross profit reports, promotions, inventory management, top ten and bottom ten reports, and more. Epicor Compass software provides insights you might not otherwise get,” said Terpstra. “For example, mini-blinds were always a top ten item, and one month they suddenly weren't. In raising the issue with the department manager, I learned that a customer that managed residential buildings was frustrated because we never had enough on hand, so he took his business elsewhere. I called him and assured him that we could fix the problem with a minimum re-order point so he would always have what he needs on the shelf. We made the change, which increased sales and gross margins on mini-blinds by approximately 40%, resulting in a few thousand dollars in additional margin.”
Receiving merchandise is easy
The Epicor Eagle Mobile Inventory solution has dramatically improved the non-Ace vendor receiving process. “We electronically receive the items for our Ace shipments,” said Terpstra. “However for the 25% of our items that are purchased outside of Ace, we use the RF scanner guns to count and receive the items. Using the RF guns is great because our inventory is more accurate and we know each item will scan with the correct price at the register, which saves a lot of time. Epicor Eagle software makes ordering for non-Ace vendors almost seamless and we couldn't live without the RF tool for our outside vendor orders.”
One-stop general ledger saves time
Rylee's has also benefited by using the Epicor Eagle General Ledger application. “Because it's all one system, Eagle software automatically passes off point of sale (POS) information to the General Ledger. We save time and generate our own income statements and balances sheets,” said Terpstra. “It's hard for me to understand why so many businesses use separate accounting programs like QuickBooks.”
“Our goal is to use the robust Epicor Eagle system to its fullest potential. It delivers profit to our bottom line,” said Terpstra.