Having begun life with a single store in Limerick, the business now has stores in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Dublin. The company has had a revolutionary attitude from the outset and continues to display that today. While in the early days innovation came in terms of the products sold, now Instore is setting the trend with the manner in which it sells furniture. Through strategic use of IT the business has been able to develop a clever mix of online and offline sales.
Getting the right mix
Instore has made substantial changes to its website in recent times with the aim of growing sales.
"Instore has had a web store facility since 2004 in different guises. It started as a fairly run-of-the-mill website," says Eugene McDonough, IT and communications manager with Instore. In this early model the site was not integrated with the company's other systems. This meant that all orders received through the site had to be subsequently inputted by a staff member into the main management system.
In 2006 this changed as the firm began to integrate the website with the rest of its systems, making it easier for customers to buy and pay for furniture online. "Now, when you place an order on the website, that product is reserved for you," says McDonough.
Rather than just rely on the website as a standalone environment, the business has worked to use the site to entice people into its stores, and vice versa. "We have stores around Ireland so if people want to sit on a sofa they saw online they can do so in person," says McDonough. "We have a good bricks-and-mortar background behind us. People understand if they buy something online and have a problem with the product, it can easily be returned to one of our stores."
On top of improving the sales system, the business has also adapted its website to enable greater customer interaction. "We realised with the development of 'Web 2.0' that we wanted to get more user-generated content on the site," says McDonough. "We've enabled reviews of our items. We're not being totalitarian and only publishing the good reviews - we believe the bad reviews will give backing to the good reviews. Any review in which people are talking about the actual products will get published on the site."
Building up the business
IT is at the core of Instore's business. The firm's main management system, which handles enterprise resource planning functions and acts as a warehouse management system, is called Furniture Retail System (FRS).
"It's specially designed for the furniture industry. It records where our stock is located, it manages [everything], from stock through to orders," says McDonough. "We couldn't run our business without it. We can tell you if we have a sofa in stock straight away." The FRS also manages the firm's forecasts of orders, which predict demand for certain products.
When building a site that would enable a better managed sales service and greater contact with clients, Instore decided to look at an option that wouldn't tie it to a single vendor. "We took the view to go with an open source solution. We went with Magento - it's one of the new kids on the block when it comes to e-commerce," says McDonough. Using an open source-based platform enables Instore to easily update its site with software from a variety of vendors.
While the developments in the business might seem high-tech to some, the applications used have proven accessible for staff. "I've been with the business a good few years, mostly on the shop floor," says Patrick Moloney, e-commerce administrator. "I would say the system is now easier and has become more user-friendly."
Ready for action
The Limerick business has learned that technology can help improve its day-to-day functions and its relationship with customers. Instore plans to build on this. McDonough says the firm is constantly on the lookout for ways IT can help it grow.
"What really excites me is that as other companies think of new ways of promoting their products and release software for this on the open source market, we can download it and quickly follow trends around the world," he says.
Instore is also looking at other systems that can aid client relationships. "We're currently evaluating CRM (customer relationship management) systems. We feel this is the best way forward to serve our customers and see what their needs are," says McDonough. "I'm always looking forward, I'm always looking for ways to make it easier to serve customers."