Planning the VE sales campaign

With a modern-day army of visitors expected for the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the Imperial War Museum needed a new electronic Point of Sale (EPoS) system in place to cope with the increased volume in sales from its shops, help manage stock more efficiently between sites and support the company’s growing mail order and E-commerce business.

The Imperial War Museum’s five shops currently handle over 700,000 transactions each year, generating £3.5 million in revenue. Given the large footfall in the shops and the complex range of merchandise sold – around 6,500 individual product lines including 4,500 books – an EPoS system was needed which would streamline stock management across all five locations and ensure sales ran smoothly for the VE Day Celebrations.

Cybertill – the secret weapon. Managers at the Imperial War Museum enlisted the help of leading EPoS providers Cybertill to ensure its VE sales campaign ran with military precision at their five shops, distribution depots and mail-order centres. Delivered remotely using Internet protocols, Cybertill’s next-generation EPoS software enables the Imperial War Museum to manage all aspects of business from any location, with secure access to important business data relating to sales, cash flow and inventory details.

Easier access and increased flexibility gives managers more effective control of resources, enabling them to control stock more efficiently and coordinate activity between multiple sites.

The multi-channel solution provided by Cybertill has not only improved operations on the shop floor and optimised logistics and distribution processes. It has also been integrated into the Imperial War Museum’s mail order and e-commerce activities to ensure continued growth and success in these areas of business.

Effective stock control

Operating across multiple sites, Cybertill streamlines and centralises the process of stock management. Sales and Purchasing Managers at the Imperial War Museum have access to a detailed audit trail of transactions, which has helped them to reduce excess stock levels by over 20% and to adopt a just-in-time purchasing strategy to help maximise profitability.

Cybertill’s EPoS system is flexible and easy to use, which makes it ideal for use in the retail sector, given the high staff turnover common in the retail industry, and the high volume of sales that need to be processed.

Real-time access to data

A significant advantage of Cybertill’s solution is that sales data and stock levels are managed and updated in real-time. With sales from the shops floor and the online store automatically registering on a single sales database, stock management is streamlined and more effective.

By enabling managers to easily generate customised sales reports, Cybertill has enabled the business to quickly identify popular and poor-selling items, in order to optimise the range of products on sale and ensure they remain in front of the competition.
Being able to manage this process and control stock remotely has also been a major advantage for managers at the Imperial War Museum, with Cybertill’s remote access solution enabling them to log in and obtain the latest cash flow and stock reports wherever they are based.