Howleys Toys
Howleys Toys - levelling the playing field
Howleys Toys are a traditional, independent retail chain supplying branded indoor and garden toys for children, plus electronic and board games. A family business with over 30 years’ retail knowledge and a member of the Toymaster buying group, Howleys Toys implemented Futura’s EPOS and retail management solution in 2014 in their 2 original stores,
Howleys now have 4 stores across Weymouth, Dorchester, Paignton and Bridport and a thriving e-commerce business selling via their own web store and across several online marketplaces.
Why did Howleys need a new system?
Howleys sought a system to support their growth as they faced the challenges of managing their stock and sales across multiple channels and disparate systems. They wanted to improve and streamline core retail processes, including stock allocations between store and web, merchandise planning, customer data capture and reporting.
The Futura retail management delivers centralised control across all sales channels, allowing all product management, buying, planning, allocations and reporting to take place in one single system, giving increased management control, accurate stock management and better all-round visibility.
Using Futura’s suite of web service-based API’s, supporting real-time live data feeds for product and stock information, order processing and customer data, Howleys have fully integrated their own web site to Futura. The same technology has been used to create a seamless link with the Channel Advisor e-commerce platform, extending Howleys’ footprint to multiple online channels including Amazon, eBay and others.
Online shopping, e-commerce and social media present a huge opportunity for a business of our size, and it’s also a chance to level the playing field. Moving to Futura is a big step up. We’ll be replacing many manual procedures and believe the benefits we’ll get in terms of stock management, allocations between store and web, seamless integration with Amazon and online marketplaces via the Channel Advisor platform, will be huge for a business of our size.
Ian Moore, company director, Howleys Toys
Key functionality benefiting Howleys Toys
- Intuitive Touch screen POS
- Seamless E-commerce link providing single view of stock, sales and customers
- Integration to Channel Advisor for easy selling on Amazon, Ebay and other online marketplaces
- Automatic re-ordering of core lines