Case Study: Reseller Reinvents Inventory Control
Tiva Software's Pricebook Connect system integrates a pocket PC with scanners from Socket Communications, Newark, Calif., to help convenience store managers receive vendors, check inventory, sync the register with pricing and create reports and shelf tags.
"We can handle all of the financial activity occurring at the point of sale on a handheld device. Otherwise, you'd resign yourself to a back room," said Rory Wall, president of Charlottte, N.C.-based Tiva.
According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, there are more than 138,200 convenience stores in the United States. In 2004, the industry posted $394 billion in sales (with $262 billion in fuel sales), creating a huge opportunity for solution providers who can help track high inventory turnover and reduce time spent training employees.
With 30 stores in Ohio and Kentucky, First Stop Convenience Stores was looking for a way to improve employee retention and a way to make their managers' jobs a little easier.
"We've grown quite a bit in the past five years, and we had a paper trail that we were doing by hand," said Chad Moore, CIO of First Stop. "The managers have so many jobs that they have to do on the store level that keeping up with price changes just wasn't feasible."
The company investigated its options and chose Tiva's Pricebook Connect.
First Stop's Tiva solution integrates Hewlett-Packard's iPaq mobile device with Socket CF scanners. The Pocket PC connects via Bluetooth to a printer to create new shelf tags when prices change. Tiva also created a micro PC device that allows the Pocket PC to interface with the registers, some of which still run on DOS.
Although Tiva does sell pocket PCs, in many instances the company encourages customers to purchase those on their own to ensure they have the absolute latest technology. Tiva, however, provides the rest of the system.
Wireless scanners have helped First Stop restructure its managers' time.
"We used to use department keys on the register instead of scanning [to keep track of inventory and sales]. We tried scanning in the past, but we never got it to fly very well for us," Moore said. "In one store, the manager was spending half of her day in the office trying to keep up with the price changes. We see that this probably saves around two hours a day."
The wireless connection allows First Stop's store managers to change inventory on the floor, and to manually check reports against actual product numbers while also keeping an eye on the merchandise.
"Sales volume is a big part of managing a convenience store these days," Wall said. "With high gas prices, now you're losing money each time you sell gas and making it up inside the store."
Fluctuating inventory and theft protection are selling points for solution providers to consider when pitching technology upgrades to convenience stores.
When cigarette inventory alone can be valued at up to $75,000, theft of even a single carton can be as costly as hiring another employee, Wall said. "On the other hand, with respect to physical inventories, if you're missing one carton of cigarettes on this particular shift or from that cashier, you have that kind of loss-prevention available to you."
First Stop's Moore said that hopefully the wireless scanners will help make managing its 30 convenience stores more appealing to employees. "This is something that we're hoping will help us keep help," Moore said.