Project Overview
A designer footwear retailer in the high street retail sector, with four branches across London and the South East of England. The organisation had grown quickly from a small market stall to multiple stores but lacked robust systems to manage sales, stock, and online presence.

My Role
Initially brought in to implement a POS system integrated with Xero to improve visibility of in-store sales. Through early conversations, I uncovered wider operational inefficiencies, including manual stock management, no e-commerce capability, high staff turnover, and difficulties tracking inventory.

Key Objectives

Implement a modern POS system integrated with financial software.

Introduce inventory control to reduce manual errors and stock loss.

Develop an e-commerce channel to expand sales opportunities.

Simplify stock movements between warehouses and stores.

Reduce reliance on paper-based processes and staff memory.

Actions Taken

System Implementation: Introduced Vend POS and e-commerce platform, integrated with DEAR inventory control and Xero.

Inventory Management: Transitioned from manual stock takes to barcode scanning, reducing stock-taking from one week to a few hours.

E-commerce Integration: Established an online sales channel to complement in-store sales, also allowing dead stock to be located and sold.

Staff Training: Delivered comprehensive training across all stores, simplifying cash-ups, and ensuring staff could quickly adapt.

Customer Experience: Enabled cross-store fulfilment — items unavailable in one store could be delivered directly or collected later.

Outcomes & Impact

Stock management streamlined and simplified across all locations.

95% of “dead stock” recovered and sold.

Online sales exceeded £1m in the first year.

Time spent on stock takes reduced from a week to hours.

The business was able to expand, opening two new stores.

Tools & Methods
Vend (now Lightspeed), DEAR Inventory, Xero, barcode scanning, e-commerce integration (Wordpress).